Smooth, Geeky Goodness

Mmm. Oh yes. Mmm.

Edit Shmedit

I was going to do an edit to the post below but decided to do this instead.

In all that silver lining stuff, I think it does bear saying that of course, I feel for the 281 CHUM staffers in news across the country who were pinkslipped the day the takeover was announced. Media concentration can indeed be scary when it reduces the number or quality of news voices being heard, but if you read the excellent coverage on Antonia's blog at The Toronto Star, you'll see that the "independence" and local focus of those news voices were already being compromised before the takeoever. Also, Adam Vaughn has got a pretty incendiary piece in eye magazine this week.

I still think there's no good reason to really stop the merger, but the CRTC should take a long hard look at establishing ground rules so that the public interest in news is not compromised.

For questions of impact on journalism -- another side of the business in need of desperate change, I usually defer to the interesting take of the Fine Young Journalist. After all, MSM dinosaurs, this guy's not just the future of the audience, he's the future of the people bringing you the news.

Friends, With Benefits, or How I Stopped Worrying And Learned To Love the Merger

[CANADIAN TV] Ok. So it's been a week now. Little details about the Bell-Globemedia takeover of CHUM are filtering through. Yeah, media concentration is bad, but it's also a fact of life, and if you're a creative person -- and even an audience person, there's a reason why this could actually benefit you.

First of all, let me say something bold: I don't think you've been well served, as viewers, by your Canadian homegrown drama up til now. There. I said it. There are a few shows that I think are wildly entertaining. On that list, I would put Trailer Park Boys, Corner Gas, Degrassi and Slings & Arrows. Below that, there's a tier of shows that I think are trying really, really hard, and hitting some of the time, and missing some other times. What's interesting is that, within their little boxes, the creative "hits" have inspired exactly what a lot of people say Canadian TV doesn't inspire: joy and loyalty and excitement. Get around a couple of TPB fans when they see Bubbles on the street and you'll see what I mean. But you'll also see it on the message boards for Degrassi, and I even saw it at a dinner party as a long time Stratford fan waxed enthusiastically about Slings & Arrows, and how fun it was to see the backstage goings-on in the theatre she so loved (and then, astonishingly, watched as three other ladies agreed with her -- AND STARTED TALKING ABOUT THE SHOW. They had all SEEN it. Imagine that!

The reality is that for the domestic Canadian TV industry to mature, there have to be a whole lot more shows like that. We don't do pilots much in Canada -- we tend to greenlight 13 scripts or 6 or 8 and then go into production. Is this the best way?

We also tend to split the responsibility of showrunner so that the person who has the writing vision and the person who can get the show made are different people. Is this the best way?

We tend to pack most of our production into the summer, and premiere most of our series in the winter or ... lately, it seems ... summer. Is this the best way?

How do you answer all these questions? Well. I don't know. But I do know this:

As a condition of approving any ownership change in Canadian media, the broadcast regulator, the CRTC, demands about 10 percent of the sale be set aside in "benefits," which means a fund that can go to other creative projects. The last such big fund was called the BCE Benefits fund, which was over 100 million dollars (CDN) that was triggered by the formation of Bell Globemedia several years back.

Playback magazine speculates that any fund triggered by the takeover could stretch to either $140 or 160 Million CDN, depending on what math you use.

There's also a regulatory decision about percentage ownership change in the makeup of the companies that make up Bell Globemedia . This deal was in play before the CHUM takeover was announced. There's a small chance that the CRTC might require a benefits package for this change. (Probably not, as all the parties are arguing that no real change of ownership took place, just everybody shuffling their percentages) If that happens, the fund could be even bigger.

So then, what gets done with it?

The BCE Benefits package did a lot of good over the years it was in place. It allowed CTV to create a "Writer's Only" development stream, which, though flawed -- was an interesting initiative that could really be effective if it was run a bit differently. It paid for some education, through bequests to the Canadian Film Centre and the University where I taught, Ryerson University.

But now we're at a crucial time in TV's future, and it may be time for BGM to think outside the box in how to administer this fund.

In the last year, we've gone from a world where downloading TV shows was illegal to where it was sanctioned by the networks and prodcos themselves. They're even taking a cut. ON DEMAND channels on Cable increase value for properties like HBO or TMN. I've repeated the same scene about five times with friends when they come to my house: they see the ON DEMAND channel for TMN, see all the movies that they can get anytime they want every month, along with all those HBO series and stuff, and they go home and subscribe. Why not? The price point finally makes sense: people want to watch what they want to watch when they want to watch it.

So that's where the audience is going. The problem with the Canadian Networks, of course, is that their entire business model is based on making money off US tv shows they buy cheaply at the L.A. screenings, simulcast, and piggyback on US promo. Their Canadian product, with notable exceptions, is done grudgingly and dumped on the air as the cost of doing business.

But not anymore.

Because they're not going to get sold the rights to stream or download LOST, or THE OFFICE, or 24. If they want to get in that game, they have to start developing their own buzzworthy product.

So. Cancon becomes important. At the same time a whole new pile of money becomes available.

Hmm.

Pilots?
Different ways of commissioning shows?
Development funds allocated to Prodcos who've produced past hits?
Seed funds?
A beefed-up Writer-Only fund?
A "showrunner" class/academy?

There are all sorts of different ways BGM could spend this money that could break the cycle of mediocrity and usher in a new era for Canadian TV. Maybe, it might even encourage a few Canadians who flee to the USA because they don't want to deal with the bullshit here-- well, maybe a few of them will stay.

And maybe the programs will be better.

Which could benefit the viewer, and the writer, and the actor, and the network, and the industry, and the culture.

Just saying.

UPDATE: The CRTC approved the ownership change of BGM and agreed it was a transfer of control rather than a change, so no new benefits package. Oh well.

The CHUM sale will definitely be subject to the 10% benefits requirement, tho.

Cue The Lake

Well, I'm still knackered. But I'm fixing to fix that. Gonna disappear to a cottage for a few days. So in the great tradition of TV, here's a few reruns for you:

Are you a writer in Canada? Do you suck?

Why I never smote a note.

And just becasue it still gets linked to: Why "The Room" is Like Vegas.

Have fun, don't get too hot, and see ya in a few days.

"You Don't Mind if We Kill You, Do You?"

Well. 5:23 p.m. Sunday. It's almost as hot outside as it is inside my Macbook Pro.

That's not a good sign.

But for the moment, at least, I am two-scripts-in-a-week finito. Let the wheels start turning.

Lot of sleep needed plus tonight I get to see my one and only going to the Fringe show of 2006. The Catering Queen, at the Tarragon. Any Torontonians, I'll be the tall, broad one with the slack jawed yokel look.

Today's NYTimes has a great profile of Mr. Law-and-Order Dick Wolf. Every article I read, he sounds like a real prick. But the kind of prick I really, really appreciate.