Room for optimism

The Indie List statistics aren’t all doom and gloom, however. Nearly 70% of companies say they plan to expand their business within the next year. Expansion plans include additional staffing, bigger development and production slates, breaking into new genres, and building out business affairs divisions.

Roughly 54% say coproductions and coventures are the biggest opportunities for their business, followed by international partnerships at 47% and exploiting existing IP at 38%.

“The industry’s cyclical, we’ve seen downturns before,” says Vancouver-based Thunderbird Entertainment CEO and chair Jennifer Twiner McCarron. “I’m feeling more on the optimistic side.”

“The main buyers, the large streamers and networks, are reevaluating their strategy, but what I’m seeing emerge is a real focus on everyone wanting to keep quality as their north star and a focus on premium content,” she says.

Thunderbird has utilized a partner-managed approach as a company that does original and service production (chart above), where they “handle everything from tip to tail,” starting from the writers’ room and ending with final delivery, and thereby receive a portion of the back-end.

“There’s almost more of a need for that as the big buyers look to lessen their own overhead and outsource,” says Twiner McCarron.

Lynas says Canada is an enticing market for international coproductions because of the creative talent and the country’s reputation as a production hub, which Toronto- and L.A.-based Blink49 Studios has been leveraging through a string of partnerships and first-look deals with talent such as Lilly Singh and Sheri Elwood since it launched in 2021. “We think there’s a lot of opportunity right now in the marketplace,” says Lynas. “We’ve been growing very rapidly, obviously, so we’re excited about the future.”

As a Canadian studio, Blink49 is better positioned than smaller indie outfits to negotiate rights agreements. As an example, the studio partnered with SEVEN24 Films on Ontario/Alberta copro Ride, with Hallmark Channel licensing U.S. rights and CTV Drama Channel picking up Canadian rights. Blink49 was able to hold international distribution rights, and anchor investor Fifth Season is a sub-distributor.

Lynas says “building strong Canadian companies” is how the industry will be able to sustain itself, as they use their capital for the development and production of more Canadian programming. “That’s how we grow our business.”

THE DOMESTIC FILM AND TV INDUSTRY LOOKS TO CANADIAN HERITAGE AND CRTC TO ENSURE

HOMEGROWN CONTENT REMAINS DISTINCTLY CANADIAN IN A NEW BROADCASTING ACT ERA.

BY CHRISTOPHER GULY