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The Minor Leagues (aka Bell versus The Blogger)

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I’ve been working with some new contributors for this site and had an email exchange with one about my philosophy of coverage — probably the first time I’ve put it down so concisely (no, I know, it’s not that concise, and neither is this post) :

I want friendly interviews, not contentious, and honest but fair reviews — but I don’t mind an edge and I love a strong point of view, and I stay away from fangirl/boy gushing. If you hate or love a show you’re reviewing feel free to say so strongly — but make a case for your position either way. My philosophy is that treating shows and the industry like they can’t handle criticism is helping perpetuate the feeling that Canadian shows are the poor cousin of US shows — the “don’t kick the puppy” syndrome.

… [The site is] obviously intended to promote and support the Canadian TV industry so more people will hear about the shows and choose to watch them, but my angle on that is that pretending everything’s wonderful has the opposite effect on the audience.

I wrote something in 2006 on Canadian TV’s puppy syndrome, and as the years go by, my opinion has solidified even more around this sentence I wrote then:

Worse than receiving negative criticism is being considered unworthy of discussion or debate.

But years ago I stopped writing reviews after a few too many angry emails and one instance of continued harassment from people associated with the shows — generated by lukewarm rather than negative reviews, or even entirely positive interviews that didn’t mention someone who thought they should be mentioned.

Compared to the previous writing I’d done about US series, and dealings with US network PR, it felt like I’d been sent to the minors. The amateur hour whispers are still heard from former critics, writers and producers who have since escaped.

Things have changed in my world, either because the industry has matured, people are more used to bloggers and social media, I’m more used to dealing with our homegrown industry, they’re more used to TV, eh?, or, more likely, some combination of those.

The site’s back to doing reviews and with the new contributors I’ve got traction on doing more original features and opinion pieces. I’m having fun with it, which is my main motivation for continuing to run TV, eh? — that and the encouragement from many people who work in the industry.

Engaging with people who express contempt for me is not fun. The continued saga of Bell versus The Blogger won’t be fun for most readers. But I’m making an exception to my “when it stops being fun walk away” rule by writing about it again, because the only rationale I can think of for their communications with me lately is that they want to intimidate me into shutting up.

And Bell Media isn’t a puppy: it’s a big dog in the telecommunications world in Canada. And I am not inclined to be muzzled; their attempt, if that’s what it is, makes me more likely to continue to be the yappy little dog.

I mean, come on: they’re a multi-billion dollar media conglomerate now taking on a hobby blogger at every perceived slight.

They already sent a humourless, off-point response to my challenge that they stop talking about their great PR work at a time when their PR work wasn’t great.

Today, they phoned me to object to a tweet. It’s bush league in the Canadian TV industry again.

A production company enthusiastically tweeted a link to the Agam Darshi interview saying it was arranged by CTV at their upfront presentation yesterday. I retweeted them, happy that they were happy with the interview. I also added the clarification:

Though to be pedantic about that RT, the Agam Darshi interview wasn’t via CTV or the upfront – it was arranged directly with her people.

Not much later, Bell Media (yes, I’m using the impersonal corporate entity since I don’t think it’s fair to single out an individual) called me to object and drip some more contempt my way, and somehow insinuate that calling myself pedantic was an insult to Bell Media. (By the way, Bell, you’re welcome for commissioning a positive interview about your upcoming series without costing you time or effort.)

Would it have been important to me to clarify the credit if it weren’t for Bell’s open hostility toward me? Hard to say, but probably – I am, actually, often pedantic about precision, and Darshi’s “people” deserve to not have their efforts presented to her or to Twitter as a whole as the work of the network.

I get it: I can be harsh — though I try to do it with levity — about what I perceive as failings of the Canadian television industry. And there are a lot of failings if you believe, as I do, that Canadian content should be the core business of a Canadian broadcaster. As it is, our networks are the chronic retweeters of the broadcast industry, taking another country’s content to fill their stream. And that merits discussion and debate.

The people writing the ill-considered response to my post and making ill-considered phone calls are human beings: If I were Bell, I’d probably hate me too. But they’re also PR professionals: If I were Bell, I’d hate me silently.

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Amazing Race Canada, Dramas and Comedies, Featured, Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary, Satisfaction

Industry Update – CTV/Bell Media 2013 Upfront

ctv13-09

CTV/Bell Media’s “Amazing” 2013 upfront was held at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, in Toronto, Ontario. It was the third straight year the upfronts were held there. The press conferences were, as always, held at Bell Media’s home offices at 299 Queen Street West.

CTV expanded the number of press conferences this year, from six to seven. The Canadian originals – The Amazing Race Canada and Satisfaction – came first. CTV’s press conferences are largely a showcase for new imported programs. This year featured ABC’s The Goldbergs, CBS’ Intelligence (this one’s about a microchip-enhanced operative — it looks silly), CBS’ Hostages, and syndicated talk show Bethenny. Fox’s The Following rounded out the bill, as the “returning favourite.”

Bell Media’s upfront presentation was fairly straightforward. It was the longest of the Big Three upfronts, at ninety-plus minutes. For its length, it didn’t have much to say beyond the standard talking points. I assume this was by design. Bell Media formally welcomed Astral Media into its family in 2012, barring “little things” like CRTC regulations…that were actually acted upon. For 2013, Bell showcased what they actually owned.

Bell Media dialed back the hubris, compared to last year. The only hint of the Bell-Astral deal was the announced Bravo GO multi-screen initiative. Mostly, Bell showcased supporting players from its American imports, as well as stars from its Canadian shows.

The clips for Canadian shows were blended with the clips for American shows, so CTV wasn’t shoving its original content into a cultural ghetto. CTV took pride of place in Bell Media’s hierarchy, with CTV Two announcing The Big Bang Theory…in syndicated weekday rerun form. Anger Management and Hot in Cleveland — six nights a week of Hot in Cleveland were also patched into CTV Two, as well as six nights a week of Mike & Molly. It’s obvious CTV Two is the home of shows CTV doesn’t want to lose to CHCH.

Cirque du Soleil topped and tailed the upfront presentation. Castmembers from Saving Hope, The Listener, Orphan Black, The Amazing Race Canada and Motive were on hand for pictures during the afterparty.

There’s a commercial element to this, of course. Bell Media runs a joint venture with Cirque du Soleil. Bell wants The Amazing Race Canada to be a hit for CTV. Motive, The Listener and Saving Hope are hits for CTV. Orphan Black does well on SPACE, and on BBC America.

One thing that bothered me about the 2013 CTV/Bell Media upfront: I was told I couldn’t take pictures of the presentation, the afterparty, or the tweets (including one of mine) that cycled during the upfronts. Come the afterparty, the tweet cycle included pictures of both events. Many of the pictures were of a giant birdcage, with Cirque du Soleil performers inside.

Bell Media showcased afterparty tweets — a few from accredited press members – as part of the afterparty. I’m not criticizing Bell Media; I just found the miscommunication strange. Bell Media announced a relationship with Twitter Canada as part of the upfront. Ad buyers were no doubt going to tweet about the cage, and Jon Montgomery handing CTV Programming and Sports executive Phil King a beer pitcher.

As for The Social, I didn’t find its sales pitch that strong. It came across to me as The View, with social media elements. That’s a thin premise to hang a talk show on. Perhaps The Social will make more sense once it airs. If the chemistry between the four hosts aren’t there, Twitter AMPLIFY content won’t make up the difference.

I didn’t mind the CTV/Bell Media 2013 upfront. Bell Media is still slow to embrace video-on-demand, but it has a better overall grasp of how to handle its Canadian content. Whether it follows through on a statement to make more Canadian content remains to be seen.

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Dramas and Comedies, Featured, Industry News, Package Deal, Seed

Industry Update – Rogers Media/City 2013 Upfront

MotherUp

Rogers Media’s 2013 upfront was held June 4, 2013, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Before the upfront, Rogers announced the renewal of Seed, as well as the rescheduling of Package Deal to fall 2013. This stuff you already know, so I won’t waste time typing about it.

The interviews started shortly after 2:30 PM ET. Surprisingly, five of the seven interview segments focused on Canadian shows. Seed and Package Deal featured cast interviews, though a majority of Seed‘s questions were answered by executive producer Mark Farrell and star Adam Korson. Eva Longoria was on hand for Mother Up! Also interviewed were the cast of OLN/City’s Storage Wars Canada, and Ray Zahab from OLN/City’s The Project: Guatemala. Rounding out the bill were James Wolk from The Crazy Ones, and Lauren Ash from Super Fun Night.

The Score, which joined the Sportsnet family as soon as the CRTC approved Rogers’ takeover of the channel, will become Sportsnet 360 on July 1. This doesn’t mean The Score is dead – the website and mobile businesses Score Digital owns still carry The Score’s lineage, and name.

Rogers promised Sportsnet 360 would retain The Score’s personality, and I hope Sportsnet 360 makes the cut. I just hope it doesn’t become a clearinghouse for Sportsnet 590 The Fan simulcasts. It’s nice Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro are back on The Score/Sportsnet 360, but the Tim and Sid simulcast is there for three hours of easy weekday CanCon.

The Rogers upfront presentation was typical of its kind: a rundown of Rogers’ properties, with a visible countdown displaying the number of minutes until free bar access. The most genuine surprise was two performances by Tegan and Sara, in service of City obtaining Canadian broadcast rights to the Grammy Awards. Professional wrestler Ron Killings (d/b/a WWE’s R-Truth) and IZOD IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe shepherded The Score into the Sportsnet family.

Rogers was especially interested in Mother Up!, showing unfinished and behind-the-scenes clips of the show during the upfront presentation. The clips were rough – backgrounds weren’t cleaned up and painted in. It struck me as odd to showcase Mother Up! in beta mode, yet it’s obvious Rogers has high hopes for it. Package Deal clips were also screened, while Breakfast Television formally announced a Montreal edition with a “surprising” host.

One notable thing about City’s 2013-14 fall schedule is the return of Great Canadian Movies, which will air Saturday at 9:00 PM ET, after an “encore presentation” of The Project: Guatemala. The Canadian movie block was temporarily retired in 2012-13, in favour of The Bachelor Canada, Less Than Kind and Murdoch Mysteries “encores”.

The Rogers upfront promoted OMNI’s Bollywood Star. Mohawk Girls, an APTN/OMNI series, wasn’t mentioned. It was a curious omission. CityNews Channel’s immediate termination last week was also ignored. Granted, upfronts deal in “happy news” moments, and don’t focus on the failures. I would have liked to see Rogers mention CityNews Channel; it was an integral part of Rogers’ 2011 upfront.

To promote Storage Wars Canada during the free bar, advertisers were handed “Rogers Cash”. The completion of activities – e.g., having a caricature drawn at the Mother Up! booth, playing a racing simulation and/or meeting R-Truth at the Sportsnet 360 booth, getting a Cityline beauty makeover – allowed participants to earn more “Rogers Cash”. It was a departure from standard protocol – Canadian television upfronts don’t usually have a gaming element. This was mainly for the advertisers’ amusement, but it was effective enough promotion.

In the end, Rogers Media had a relatively modest 2013 upfront, even though it was more lavish than the 2012 upfront. While not much actual news was offered, at least Rogers didn’t oversell itself. The countdown-to-free-bar display was a bit much, though.

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Featured, Industry News

An interview with CBC’s scripted exec Sally Catto

SallyCattoAt the CBC 2013/14 Season Preview in Vancouver, TV, eh?’s Rachel Langer had the chance to interview Sally Catto, CBC’s executive in charge of scripted programming. She had lots to say about CBC’s 2013/14 slate, what’s in store in the future, and how big a role ratings actually play.

OK, so let’s get the scary money question out of the way first. What role did the budget cuts play in the upcoming season?

In the big picture you will see that we have a lot of returning hits. That’s two-fold. We’re so lucky that we have these returning hits. I was just thinking about the fact that years ago, and I’m not just talking about the CBC but the entire industry, we just didn’t have this many Canadian hits. To me it’s a tremendous success that we have (Republic of ) Doyle going into its fifth season, Heartland going into its seventh season, etc.

At the same time you don’t see a lot of new additions and I would say that’s because we’ve had a lot of success, but we just do not have the money to add a lot of new series to our slate, particularly scripted series. I think it’s very much a strategy of building and holding on to our successes. Fortunately we have them, but the impact is in scripted that we can’t add a new series to the slate — we do not have the money to do that. We’ve added an acquisition to the slate, and that financially completely works for us and we love the show. That is the most obvious impact.

Crossing Lines is the acquisition, correct? Can you talk to me a little bit about that?

Crossing Lines is a French-German co-production. We do look for shows that are out there internationally; we are not trying to be an American network. Ironically, Crossing Lines will be airing on NBC, but I can honestly say our interest in Crossing Lines preceded interest in that deal happening. Our acquisitions team were looking at it before that happened. When that happened it didn’t change our interest in it. As you will see we’re not simulcasting it, we’re not changing our Canadian schedule, and we think it will really compliment our schedule.

We are really happy with it and we love that Donald Sutherland, a great Canadian star, is in it. We think that it’s something our audiences will really love and it’s on that global playing field.

The new shows that are coming to the slate are movies, miniseries, that sort of thing.

Yes, Best Laid Plans is based on Terry Fallis’ wonderful book [as well as Still Life, based on Louise Penny’s book]. I think you’ll see in terms of our strategy, we really like to use those movies and miniseries to showcase our Canadian culture in a different way. Our ongoing series do it in one way, but I think when you have a literary adaptation, that will speak to Canadians.

Do you see a possibility for projects like that to spin off into a series or a larger project than initially planned?

I think it’s always possible. Neither of those were developed with that in mind. Certainly there are a number of Louise Penny books and looking at and reading the scripts for Best Laid Plans I can see the potential, so it’s a juggling act for us. It comes down to how many slots do we have, what’s our breadth of programming, does it tell a story about Canadians that we don’t feel is being told by any of our other shows. So there are many variables that go into it, how does it do, how will it perform, so it’s early to say. There is the potential in both of those [to expand], unlike a biopic, but we do have a number of strong projects being developed so at this point it’s just hard to say.

We have a very strong cop show presence in Canada — do you see that trend continuing?

You know I think for us, we have Cracked and again, because we really want to represent the different programming — and we have Crossing Lines now — I wouldn’t prioritize another cop show. We have a great cop show. We have a couple of detective series, as you know, and I think our competitors also do it really well, so trying to differentiate ourselves we would be more interested in continuing to diversify.

Can you tell us anything about what you have in the development pipeline?

We have some really exciting projects in development. We have a project in development with Joseph Boyden, who is a Giller Prize winner, and a beautiful, beautiful writer. It’s an original series in development, so that is stunning and remarkable so I feel honored to be working with him. We have another wonderful project in development with Laurie Finstad who did Durham County – a beautiful period western. We have a sweeping story about the Klondike based on Pierre Berton’s book, written by Ted Mann. I hesitate to say because we have so many.

I don’t want anyone to feel like “oh you’ve left us out because we’re not a priority” so that’s why we generally don’t have those conversations, but at the same time I’m so proud of what we’re doing. We’re working with incredible writers. I could go on and on and on, so anyone I’ve left out, forgive me because we love you all.

We also have upcoming another adaptation of the Book of Negroes that Clement Virgo is doing with the book’s author Lawrence Hill, so that will be going into production later this year.

How important are ratings to the CBC?

It’s a really great question. Ratings are very important to us. Should they be? I think we should care very much about whether Canadians are watching our shows, because if they aren’t, we aren’t connecting, we aren’t reaching them. I personally believe audience is extremely important, however I believe that there should be a balance. Not every show should be held to the same bar and the decisions shouldn’t be based on “is this going to bring in the broadest audience.” As a public broadcaster I think it’s a factor and I think it should be weighed very heavily for some of our shows.

Do I think it should govern every decision? No, and I don’t think it does. However, I think that often when there are comments made about the CBC — are you doing what a public broadcaster should be doing? I would argue yes and I can give you all the reasons, but I think what people don’t always remember is that, especially with our cuts, we’re incredibly dependant on and grateful for the Canadian Media Fund.

55% percent of our envelope is determined by eyeballs on the screen, so we are actually held to the same standard as a private broadcaster. That makes it imperative for us to consider ratings. If we don’t, our envelope goes down. That’s just a fact. I have mixed feelings about that — I think that’s just the way it is, though. We absolutely have to be cognisant of that and we’ve struck an amazing balance of providing shows you wouldn’t see on other networks and still bringing in amazing audiences.

Can you talk to me about some of the digital components that you’ve been bringing in? Could you see the CBC focusing at all on original digital content or web content, or more additional content to accompany the scripted shows that you have?

In terms of original content, would we love to? Yes, but it’s a monetary issue. I find it fascinating to be at a modern public broadcaster at this time of incredible change, because it’s all just content, and how are we showcasing it? That seems to be changing every year.

I look at Republic of Doyle and we had a second screen app for that this year, and that was so amazing to do that. I do feel like we tend to lead the charge on the digital front. Our Facebook game for Heartland Ranch won the very coveted Social TV Award, and it was up against shows from the States, and big Warner Brothers shows. I feel very proud of that. I think now, our [digital] content is primarily tied into our original programming that you’ve seen on the network. Will that change in the future? I think it’s entirely possible, but financially it’s hard. Just the way it’s all evolving, we won’t even see the distinction.

What is your favorite part of working with the CBC?

I really believe in the public broadcaster. I really believe in telling Canadian stories. I love where it all starts with the talent, with the writers. That’s where it all starts. I think you all see the shows in front of you and I feel very lucky that I get to see what happens behind the scenes. It’s the writers. I love working with our actors, and that the CBC has built a true star system and that we get to work with these great stars, but I also love our unsung heroes — I’m a big fan of those writers.

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Industry News, Reality, Lifestyle & Documentary

Canadian channel’s cop-out

From Jaime Woo of the Toronto Standard:

OutTV’s Canadian Cop-Out
Here’s the thing: OutTV sounds embarrassed by its Canadian content. Yet if OutTV is in such dire straits with its Canadian programming, why not throw a Hail Mary then and go for some really interesting, out there stuff? It doesn’t even need to be expensive. Take a look at Comedy Central, the American channel that built itself up with the Daily Show, Colbert Report, Tosh.0, and other talking head shows. The biggest question is—and without knowing the financials or how syndication deals are structured at OutTV—how did New Addams Family became the poster child for queer television? Especially when Canadians are or were behind huge chunks of Degrassi, Lost Girl, and Wonderfalls.  Read more.

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