The project you're referring to is called Falcon Beach. It's a series that's on Global Television—no longer, by the way, otherwise I'd tell you to watch it at eight o'clock on Friday night, but it finished its run last week. It has sold in 115 territories around the world. It has a broadcaster in America on ABC Family, which is a cable broadcaster owned by Disney.
It's set in Manitoba, on the shore of Lake Winnipeg, in a fictional town called Falcon Beach. The entire world, except America, knows it's set in Manitoba. In America, we actually changed the names of the places so it's set in New Hampshire, so that they can identify with it for where they are. That's the business of it, and that was the deal we made. We obviously talked to the CTF and Telefilm about doing that, because that was changing a location for one territory.
It is a huge success. It will pay back its investors. If it continues to be produced, if Global renews it, which we'll find out this week, the money invested by CTF equity will be entirely paid back through sales—and I don't know how frequent that is, but I know it's not very frequent. It will also pay back Manitoba Film and Sound and the other equity investors. The producers will receive proceeds from those sales.
The characters are all Canadian, the situations are Canadian, and the landscape is Canadian. The rest of the world looks at it and says, “What a beautiful place”, and the people who live in Winnipeg Beach, where we shoot it, have started to look at their town differently, which is very interesting.
It is unique in that it's an idea that caught the world's imagination, because it's a bunch of young people at a beach resort town. Not every Canadian idea will. When they can, that's fabulous. I think if CBC has an idea that attracts the rest of the world, that's great. I'm not one of the people who think they shouldn't broadcast NHL hockey because it has a big audience. Canadians love NHL hockey and it's a reflection of our culture. So I'm not suggesting that the CBC should only do things that are small and insulated and Canadian, not at all.
It's a global world now. It just is. Soon enough, territories won't even be the way we sell things, because it will be put on the Internet and it will be gone. We producers are aware of that. Our stories travel, no matter what.
Our stories, well told, will go out into the world and be ambassadors for us, but also, we want the rest of the world's stories to come to us, which is why we suggest, for instance, that programming from the BBC can be shown on the CBC, that they can co-produce stories. So we're not suggesting that borders and walls be built, but a business model, yes.
American broadcasters are now calling us and saying Falcon Beach is a great model. It's also a great financial deal for them because we're covering a lot of the costs. They're used to writing a cheque and paying the entire amount for their series. So they're discovering us, and I think it's a great idea that CBC, CTV, or anyone says “Yes, we have other great stories. Here they are.” But that's a way of making money that isn't going after advertising dollars and trying to be generic. That's a way of being more specific and saying that our stories have value and we can produce them well.