We're operating in a time of constant change, when technology is redefining how work happens, and where new ways of creating, financing, and distributing content are evolving faster than our systems can keep up. BMO and Women in Film and Television (WIFT) recently hosted a panel discussion in Toronto to explore the new distribution landscape, including the benefits and challenges of these new opportunities.

The panelists included:

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  Mary-Anne Taylor, Roku’s Head of Content Distribution, Canada

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  Sara Chan, VP and Associate General Counsel, Corus Entertainment, a Canadian media and broadcasting company

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  Solange Attwood, CEO and Co-Founder of Serial Maven Studios, a female-owned independent production and distribution company

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  Stephanie Wilson Chapin, Strategic Partner Manager for News, Sports & TV, YouTube Canada, served as the moderator.

The following is a summary of their discussion.

With traditional windowing being replaced by a “content everywhere” strategy, how are Canadian producers changing their distribution strategies? Chan noted that it has been a long time since traditional broadcasting was the only game in town. Now that the field has grown exponentially larger, buyers are facing more competition for acquiring content, which can drive prices higher.

“Our suppliers have more options to sell,” Chan said. “And in some cases, they may have their own streaming service. So, there are rights that we might have gotten from them in the past that they want to keep for themselves in case they want to launch or already launched domestically in Canada. Or they may give it to us, but the holdback window for SVOD [subscription video on demand] is much shorter. So, our exclusivity around those rights is shrinking, where the price is not changing or going up. That's really been our challenge: How do we compete? How do we slice and dice rights differently? How do we partner differently and be more creative so that everybody wins?”

From Attwood’s perspective, shifting market dynamics means content needs to be as widely available as possible.

“I've worked a lot in licensing content to the international market, and that world is changing quite dramatically,” she said. “There are more buyers out there. The big issue for many of us is that although there are more buyers in the market, although there's more consumption of content in general, the monetization piece has become much harder and has consolidated amongst a smaller group. So, in terms of distribution activities, you need to be everywhere all at once.”

Attwood also pointed to another emerging distribution opportunity, although it’s one that hasn’t had the chance to develop a playbook. "Many producers are becoming their own broadcasters,” she said. “They are taking their content direct to YouTube.”

"There's a lot of convergence around all of these various activities that used to be much more sort of segmented, which I think is an interesting opportunity for those who have the stamina to be able to test it all out,” Attwood said.

With commissioning on the decline, media companies are exploring more effective ways to finance distribution deals. Serial Maven, for example, has leaned heavily into international treaty co-productions. They’re common in scripted productions, but Attwood believes that producers and distributors of all types of premium long-form content need that skill set, or they’ll find themselves under pressure.

"Creativity extends beyond the actual creative,” Attwood said. “You also need creativity as it relates to your commercial acumen. Ultimately, partnerships are a core feature of that. Co-producing with other producers in other countries around the world has been a way in which we have secured commissions.”

For example, Serial Maven distributed a 10-part unscripted documentary series called Toronto Airport Uncovered. Attwood explained that the show was a collaboration between London-based Arrow Media and Toronto-based Cantina Media. “We structured that as a treaty co-production so that it qualified as Canadian content—so it worked for our partner in Canada—but it also qualified as U.K.-produced content.”

Collaboration extended to the financing side. Serial Maven’s partners included Corus, National Geographic’s U.S. and EMEA divisions, and Australian broadcaster SBS. “It's pulling in multiple financiers where the platform partners and broadcasters are sharing the risk of the investment, but they're getting something in which multiple people are putting in funding,” Attwood said. "They're getting a higher value production from a pure dollars and cents perspective for less of their actual cash.”

The rise in advertising video on demand (AVOD) and free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channels has resulted in a rethinking of distribution strategies. A prime example is the market for older content such as classic sitcoms or game shows.

“It used to be that the life cycle for your content was extracted after about 10 years,” Attwood said. “That is not true anymore. I would argue that the value of catalogue content and, therefore, the importance of IP retention becomes exponentially larger. Among the programs we’re selling, about 50% of it is new stuff, and 50% of it is catalogue programming.”

As any industry undergoes a major shift, the skills required to meet the moment need to change, as well. That’s true of the film and television production industry, but it’s also clear that some qualities are evergreen. The characteristics Serial Maven looks for tend to be the ones that are valuable through all trends and cycles.

"One is problem-solving skills,” Attwood said. “The ability to look at a situation and come up with solutions is not that easy. The other is relationships. In a world of technology, in some instances there are much fewer person-to-person relationships that exist. But I would argue that in our industry, that remains fundamental. Finding people who convey a level of trust, honesty, and collaboration—those characteristics will continue to be important.”

At Roku, being skilled in data analytics is paramount. "It's about having good content, but it's also about the data,” Taylor said. “Because as a streaming platform, we're not actually talking to people watching the content. We're talking to the partners to make sure that everybody's winning. You need skills to be able to build out on platforms, build new features like putting a sports zone on a platform. You need to have all these skills while at the same time understanding the content. What's the best content to be on whatever platform you're talking about. And believe me, it changes.”

While that principle holds true for streaming platforms in general, Corus still expects talent to be consumers of content. "I always ask what are you watching, what are you listening to, what have you been consuming that made you want to talk to someone about it?” Chan said. “You have to understand how these things work. When you're negotiating a deal, you have to understand where this content is going to live. You have to understand the user journey and how subscribers are going to interact with it. And you can't do that without being a consumer of media yourself.”