Is It The End Of The World As We Know It? I Feel Fine . . .

Born in Missouri, emerging Canadian writer Richard Baldwin won the Langston Hughes Award for Creative Writing (Poetry) in 1998 and published "Along an Edge" in The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association's Star*Line magazine (Jan/Feb 2007). Richard is currently developing STUFFED!, an original television series about unemployed puppets. For samples and Richard's production blog "Into the Stuffing" visit westofwonderland.com.

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The CRTC is in talks about the state of Canadian television, and I'm hopeful - but probably not for the reasons you might think.

The broadcasters and cable companies generally seem to want two things: looser (or at least no tighter) rules on Canadian content, and to bicker over fee-for-carriage. This is the umpteenth time they've discussed these issues, and they will continue to discuss them for some while longer--And why shouldn't they? As TV distributors in Canada, looser content regulations mean they can spend more funds on American exports and then piggyback on US marketing dynamos to leverage their protected markets. If your only concern is to distribute (not necessarily create) TV for profit, this is very smart business.

But it's only very smart business while the business model works. That model is on the edge of a great big crash--(which I think explains the kerfuffle over fee-for-carriage, by the way). The Internet is come calling to the television industry, and everybody better listen up--Canadian broadcasters most of all.

We all know that the Internet provides 'boundless opportunities': anyone and their brother can make a television show in their basements . . . though without a lot of hard work and dedication they won't be able to market it thereafter. The Internet doesn't sound so powerful when put that way, does it? No, indie TV isn't very dangerous to traditional distributors yet--and it may never make much of a dent if big market forces can push their way into Internet distribution hard and fast enough. The danger to Canadian TV distributors is how, by moving the attention of a vast number of people from one distribution medium to another, the protected Canadian market is entirely removed. When a kid from Iqaluit can communicate in real-time video with one from Lima or Hong Kong, don't expect Canadians to watch channels that specialize in, essentially, same-moment 'reruns' of American TV shows.

I'm hopeful for Canadian TV distribution because I believe that eventually the broadcasters and cablecos will either have to
a) give up their old business model and embrace the one thing that makes them distinctive: Canadian content, or
b) be replaced by Internet distribution companies, some of whom will see the market sense in focusing on Canadian-made production.
I must admit, however: That's a long-term hope. In the short term (maybe the next five to ten years) the distributors can struggle to keep the old model from sinking. And they can take us all along for the ride . . . until we can find our own ways off this particular Titanic.

Still I'm even more hopeful for Canadian TV creators. Sure the recession means it's lean times all around, but there really is more opportunity now in television than there has been since the 70's or even before. Jobs in the present system may be harder to find, but now is the time to begin building a new system. Even if big market forces break open Internet distribution in the next couple years, no one knows the rules; we have an unprecedented opportunity right now to write rules of our own.

But we've got to eat. How do you make a living on Internet-distributed TV? So far there are no real answers to this question, but we can conjecture based on where other industries have succeeded on the Internet. A successful Internet-distributed TV series will likely need:

Content that's inexpensive to produce, with consistent and frequent updates. I would recommend adding on a weekly web comic to keep the page updated regularly between intermittent video episodes--At least until the funds are available to shoot and post more often.

Word-of-mouth advertising after very long periods of production. If blogs can often take up to five years to catch on then we need to imagine at the very least two+ years for a TV series from new creators to grow an audience. It may be better to build a creator-focused website rather than a series-focused website if you work on multiple projects--That way the various projects will draw on each others' audiences.

An expectation that you're producing to a niche market. Very few shows are going to pull in massive numbers any longer, on broadcast or otherwise--But a smaller, properly targeted audience is likely to be much more faithful in the long run. How do you target this audience? Make things you love, then target the people who are most likely to appreciate those same things. People like yourself.

Avenues for a personal connection to your audience. A blog, Facebook group, Twitter page or a comment section on your central website can each help. Your audience must become a community if it is to become a truly devoted following. And what better reason to form a community than to connect with others who love the same sorts of things that you do? Just make sure you actually use the social networking machines that you set up; if you're just going to lurk on Twitter it's best not to advertise that account on your website, or you might discourage more people than you'd bring in.

Selling merchandise and tickets to live events. DVDs and T-shirts are likely to net you more money than advertisements, at least until the big companies understand Internet advertising better. Live events do really well for most indie musicians, so if you can find a way to run improv or staged 'episodes' for your series why not see where that might take you?

The 'will to succeed'. Cheesy, but true; if you want to make a difference in this industry then you can't let anything stop you. This also means that if you go to Telefilm or whoever and you don't get funding for a project, find ways to do the project anyway. There are people just south of you doing what they love, and they're not waiting for grants. Of course first and foremost you also need:

Good quality content, and luck. But who doesn't?

No one can say for sure what will get an Internet series up and profitable, but then again no one really knows what makes any particular broadcast TV series profit while others fail. What we can be sure of is: On an Internet show you are much more in control of the content and direction than you are when distributing through a network.

Please don't misunderstand me--I'm not recommending that anyone put all their eggs in the same Internet basket. But if like me you're small fry at the moment in TV Land then you have very little to lose by trying to develop an Internet portfolio. I mean, really, how much money are we certain to make in a screwed-up economy while working for dinosaurs? How much money--and control over your own destiny--do you stand to lose by not doing for yourself?

Let the behemoths fight over issues that won't matter in five to ten years. If they hire you, great--we all need to eat--but while you're looking for work why not take some time and try making a difference to television's long-term future?

I'm hopeful - who's with me?