Canadian Heritage Committee on May 11th, 2015

[Prem Gill]

I would say no, but I'm going to let Ann answer that question.

[Ann Mainville-Neeson]

I think that a lot of the programs we have in place, including the tax credit program, are very important for the industry.

As for other private funding, such as what Telus provides for community programming, those types of programs will continue to be important. As the CRTC has recognized, what we do with Storyhive and our community programming is part of our regulatory obligation, so we have to spend that money in any event. It's how we've chosen to spend it that is truly innovative and that we want to bring to the attention of this committee.

Ultimately, though, it's very important not to seek too many subsidies that will be detrimental to the overall broadcasting industry. That would be our position.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

Are there any other comparable products being offered in the Canadian markets by any other competitor? I'm aware of what Telus is doing, but is there anyone else?

[Prem Gill]

Not that we're aware of. There are similar competitions that might be held.

In terms of a platform, one of the other pieces is that this creative directory that I referred to in my opening remarks is becoming quite an interesting part of it as well. As you've heard through different people who have presented to this committee, we have a very vibrant emerging film and television community.

There is an established community, but there is an emerging and aspiring artist community out there, and it's a way for people to actually connect. You might be a local musician, but you have no idea of how to make a music video. You can actually connect with people through our platform. I think that's a very unique part of it. Even if others are holding similar competitions where you can get micro grants for television funding, for short-form programming it's very unique in that aspect.

[David Yurdiga, Conservative, Fort McMurray—Athabasca, AB]

I'm interested in the participants of Storyhive.

Are we looking at a younger group? What is the range in age? Does it go from the teens to whatever age?

[Prem Gill]

It's been really interesting.

We had generally thought it was a typical millennial audience, but it actually ranges from 24 years to 60 years. There is a very active community of people who are in their mid-thirties to forties who are also participants in Storyhive. They may work at a VFX shop during the day, but have that passion project, that short film, that they've always wanted to make. They're participating in it as well. They haven't necessarily created their own intellectual property through the work they do in their day jobs, but they're participating in this as well.

It does skew a little bit younger, but not as young as we anticipated that it would. It's become quite an interesting place. I would say that 34 years is probably the average age of participants.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Nantel, you have the floor for seven minutes.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to all three of you for joining us today. You are our final witnesses on this topic. It is fascinating to me that, in both cases, you talked a lot about television although our study is on the film industry. I suppose that there is nothing surprising in that, because of the fact that television is clearly the broadcasting medium that is in second place in terms of its popularity with consumers in Quebec and Canada.

Mr. Provencher, you clearly have a wealth of experience. I remember running into you back in the day when you were at TVA. You oversaw the implementation of business models on a number of occasions. In fact, your four recommendations are still largely based on the business side of production, and on the financial dimension.

How do you see the future of television? The financial difficulties of all mainstream television stations have been in the news recently. As I often like to recall, when we were elected in 2011, few of us had iPads. We all have one now.

How do you see the future of our cultural content?

[André Provencher]

Clearly, we are currently facing considerable challenges and there will be more of them in the years to come. For francophone television content, we still have some factors in our favour, however. Quebeckers’ attachment to their television and their artists is an undeniable advantage. Yet, when the time comes to balance the books, it is a different story. As you could see in the most recent CRTC report, the entire radio and television industry is experiencing quite significant problems of profitability. Together with our audiences, we have to migrate to digital platforms in order for there to be a kind of internal cohesion and partnership between the various windows so that there is enough financing.

Take, for example, the service called Illico that was launched two years ago now. It allowed our group to launch series like Mensonges and to offer a digital video and video on demand service by subscription. Afterwards, we were able to air the show on a more conventional specialty channel called addikTV. Because of the financial contributions from the various platforms, we have been able to offer content that continues to be quite outstanding and distinct.

The other direction that our group has taken is in international partnerships. In our opinion, there is no way out for our broadcasting system if we do not share the challenges and the issues with international partners. So we recently announced partnership agreements with TFI in France, for example. We are almost ready to do the same thing in a few weeks with a major broadcaster in the United States. We are looking for more partners in order to create content and so that broadcasters around the world can help each other as much as possible, because they are having to come to grips with the same difficulties.

At the last MIPTV—

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

Excuse me for interrupting. When you say “having to come to grips with the same difficulties”, are you referring to the huge steamroller coming from the other platforms?

[André Provencher]

Of course. The splitting of the audience as a result of the various platforms is one factor. At the same time, advertising revenues are dropping. Those revenues are the very bread and butter of the business model used by conventional broadcasters.

I was going to draw your attention to quite an astonishing agreement announced a few weeks ago at the recent MIPTV in Cannes. This is an agreement between two European broadcasters and one American one: TFI, RTL in Germany, and NBC. They announced the production of three big-budget fiction series for which they are going to share the responsibility, the costs and the financing.

I have been working in the television and audiovisual business for more than 30 years and this is the first time that I have seen strategies like those. Our discussions with partners we have identified in the United States tell us that, even the Americans, who are in a stronger position than we are as a result of their demographics, their history and their experience in the international market, say that they are not going to get through this without consolidating and sharing with partners elsewhere in the world.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

With consolidation like that, is there not an inherent risk of moving away from Canadian storytelling, which is very local?

TVA, through the Éléphant project, has certainly played a role. A wealth of films from the archives has become available. The most recent Gala Artis certainly showed TVA’s commitment to the artistic community by focusing on the work that everyone is doing.

I feel that we have two poles. On one, there is the production, stimulating that production and the clientele’s interest by creating a feeling of belonging. On the other, there is the exposure. If you do not have the exposure, no one sees you. If people are not interested, our exposure will not produce any results.

[André Provencher]

I won't deny that it does not come without some risk.

That said, a number of our creators, our great artists or our cultural companies have succeeded in finding a place around the world and highlighting their skills and their talent in writing stories. That is the story of the Cirque du Soleil, of course, which has based its entire development on a strategy of intellectual property. It has called upon a number of our creators and directors.

The same goes for someone like Robert Lepage, who is known all over the world. That has not affected his ability to tell stories from his point of view as a Quebecker and a Canadian. Quite the opposite.

[Pierre Nantel, NDP, Longueuil—Pierre-Boucher, QC]

So let me make a link with the initiative that francophone producers talked to us about earlier, which is to stress the importance of screenwriters, basically like the TELUS people are doing. You are are trying to sew the seeds of storytelling talent.

[André Provencher]

I am proud enough to be able to mention one thing to you. Recently, Quebecor launched an initiative to search out television creators and designers. Forgive me if I digress into television, but I will happily get back to feature films.

So we have done that as par of C2 Montréal, a event about creativity and innovation that will take place in Montreal at the end of May and that has become very big around the world. It has been called the “Davos of creativity”.

We asked people to come to us with new ideas for their television. We were expecting a maximum of fifty proposals because it was a lot more complicated than just writing your name on a piece of paper and dropping it in a hat. We got 215. Some of the proposals were really interesting. We opened it to both professionals and amateurs.

We are in a privileged position because we have a great reservoir of artistic and creative talent. That reservoir just needs to be called on more. It just needs to be put into a more realistic business environment.

As for our cinema, I am sorry to say that the level of private financing there is one of the weakest, about 3% to 5%.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gord Brown]

Thank you.

Mr. Dion, the floor is yours; you have five minutes.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My thanks to Mr. Provencher, Ms. Gill and Ms. Mainville-Neeson.

I think you're the two last ones indeed, but the contrast between the two presentations is quite striking. Telus has a lot to say to us about the role of the federal government, and I'm very impressed by the model you presented, but you chose to focus only on that. Why?

[Ann Mainville-Neeson]

Other than our community programming, Telus does not own any content programming services of any kind. We are strictly a distributor. To the extent that we operate in the community and we produce community programming, we have an innovative model that we thought would be useful to present to you. Otherwise, we are not in the content ownership or creation business.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

What do you hope we will do with your innovative model, which is quite innovative indeed? What would you like to see us recommend to the government about this model?

[Ann Mainville-Neeson]

The innovative aspect of it is that it's creating...it is building an audience prior to funding being allocated. That in itself is something one would hope is at the basis of some of the funding that will go to Canadian content, because ultimately, creating content that will never be watched is not as useful as making sure your producers, directors, and storytellers have created an audience, so when they finally do create that piece, it will be seen, will be cherished, and will be provided—

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Which new policy do we need to implement? Is it fine as it is, or is there something we should do in order to make sure this kind of model will spread?

[Prem Gill]

I think the flexibility we have within the current community television programming policy is what has enabled us to do this.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

You don't want any change in the policy.

[Prem Gill]

Not to the current community television policy.

[Stéphane Dion, Liberal, Saint-Laurent—Cartierville, QC]

Okay.

Mr. Provencher, does the proposal from the TELUS people inspire you in any way?