In our fifth and final edition of Focus 2015, we speak with Greg Rubidge of Syndicado, a digitally focused distributor. Launched in 2009, Syndicado started out as a VOD aggregator but as the digital distribution landscape continues to shift rapidly, the company is evolving its strategy. Here, Syndicado president and founder Rubidge discusses how his company is meeting the challenges of an over-saturated film landscape and narrowed windows. 

What do you anticipate to be the biggest changes to your business in 2015?

Navigating a disruptive environment. Traditional film distribution is broken and until a new norm develops and revenues (investments) become more predictable, there will be a lot of trials, errors and bloodletting. While digital is driving this change, it too is evolving rapidly and the tactics that may have worked 18 months ago are out the window and we’re recalibrating our strategy again this year. Small-run theatrical releases were a key driver of VOD sales, but now requirements for day and date have grown (more cities, and concurrent release) in the U.S., with no guarantee of carriage, primary placement or audience interest.

To address these changes, we’re expanding our investment in new acquisitions and marketing and continue to experiment to find ways to connect audiences with a film, across all platforms. This also means we’re more focused on the acquisitions we take on, in addition to the key platform partners we work with. This could mean more pre-sales with some of our VOD partners for carriage or exclusivity. From a content perspective, we’re looking at more cast-driven narratives, where in the past we were primarily [focused on] documentaries.

What business, economic or regulatory trends will drive these changes?

Because most of our business is outside of Canada, we’re not as impacted by Canadian regulatory issues. Digital distribution in Canada is not as regulated – yet. And it’s dominated by players outside Canada, [the number of] which will only grow, even with home-spun “me too” services. Business-wise and economically, we’re seeing the majors in the U.S. invest larger sums in acquisitions and marketing, which drives up costs for independent distributors. In addition, [there’s the] the fierce fight over “shelf space” on the key internet outlets such as GooglePlay, Hulu and iTunes. This means while not competing solely on money, we have to be much more strategic about how we market a film so that it can bubble up to the top of indie world tastemakers and garner more preferred positioning. Using grassroots theatrical distribution outlets like TUGG or Gathr is one option, coupled with a N.Y./L.A. four-wall [strategy] to get some national press. Like movies, it’s about building a story around the film to justify carriage.

What do you anticipate to be your biggest challenge?

Maintaining a broad enough portfolio acquisition strategy to grow cash flow while still “swinging for the fences” on a few key acquisitions. I don’t see a long term future in aggregation of content at the distributor level, as most platforms will become flooded. Eventually curation and recommendations will be paramount for both distributors as well as the major VOD outlets. Breaking through the noise of social media, manufactured buzz and unlimited content creation is the biggest challenge for the industry overall.

What do you see as the most significant opportunities?

We see international growth as the biggest opportunity. Canada is simply too small – and restrictive – a market. We’ve opened an office in the U.S., and will be expanding our strategic partnerships in Europe for distribution and Latin America for content acquisition. Asia will grow in priority for us by Q4. Most of the major U.S. VOD outlets are expanding to Europe and Latin America before Canada and we aim to support that expansion through our own growth in those regions.