CBC push for daytime ‘branded entertainment’ removes creative power, producer says

CBC/Radio-Canada’s new plan to air more branded entertainment during the day will draw advertising and sponsorship dollars to the public broadcaster at the cost of quality daytime programming and producers’ creative talent, said Richard Nielsen, president of Toronto-based Norflicks Productions Ltd. CBC announced an initiative last week for more branded entertainment in new programming for CBC’s daytime schedule. The plan aims to bring together marketers and independent producers who would collaborate on new projects connected to Canadian brands or new Canadian products. “The real problem is what’s lost here, it's the power of the creator,” Nielsen said in a phone interview. “I’m talking about the person really creating it on the screen. That person’s insights and instincts have to first be aired in a room with people who simply want to sell mustard, and so on.” Nielsen said the initiative might help producers obtain necessary funds to produce a show, though funding would be the only motivation for a producer to enter into such a partnership with an advertiser or marketer. Gaye McDonald, director of client marketing at CBC’s Revenue Group, said in a phone interview this week that the new initiative will help CBC increase its advertising revenues and build on the type of branded advertising the broadcaster is already using in existing shows. McDonald said advertisers like CBC’s Steven & Chris lifestyle and cooking show, which has been renewed for the 2013-2014 broadcast season with most other shows, because products can be showcased and introduced to a live studio audience. “We can do taste testing,” McDonald said. “It’s that great CBC opportunity of showcasing Canadian talent and Canadian brands together, and taking them out to the public,” she said, adding that CBC hopes to do more branded programming in its daytime schedule. “What we look for there would be that it’s engaging, it’s informative, fun and bright—daytime kind of shows,” she said. In a release Friday, CBC said pitches for series concepts from independent producers and marketers may be submitted online until May 21, 2013. “It will provide the chance to be part of the creation and development of new daytime programs that incorporate strategic partnerships with outside brands, in an effort to create opportunities that go beyond traditional broadcast avenues,” the release said. Among the criteria for projects to be considered, CBC said it is looking for new programs 30 minutes or an hour long that are field-based, with limited local travel, and that contain subject matter targeted towards a family audience with a “slight” female bias of 25-to-54 years old. CBC said the branded entertainment projects must “complement and match” the tone of the broadcaster's existing afternoon lifestyle talk and cooking shows as well as unite audiences in a national conversation or a collective experience. McDonald said the creation of a new TV series and the development of advertising for the series are traditionally done separately, “but if we do them together and CBC actually puts this into a development format, we think we can create greatness by combining the two opportunities.” Nielsen said if a show is required to revolve around products or a brand, creativity is stifled because the show becomes limited to how those products can appear. “When I saw this, I didn’t know how much I could write that would confine the action to the kitchen and the bathroom, you know? Because that’s inevitably where the drugs and soaps and beauty products are kept, and the breakfast food,” he said. Nielsen said that with such a programming structure, serving the artists involved in the show or serving the Canadian public becomes less important. “The only reason a creative producer would sit in that room is for the money, for no other reason,” he said. He said it is “tragic” that Canada’s public broadcaster is “starved” for resources and resorting to branded entertainment. “For the CBC to be adopting such a course, is an enormous defeat for what public broadcasting was supposed to achieve,” Nielsen said. CBC is trying to find new sources of revenue after the Conservative government’s 2012 federal budget, which reduced spending government-wide, announced annual CBC cuts of $115 million starting in 2014-2015. The broadcaster is cutting 650 full-time positions, has shut down its 607-transmitter analog television system, and moved Radio-Canada International (RCI) online to deal with the budget reductions. It has also asked the CRTC for permission to place advertising on radio channels CBC Radio 2 and Espace Musique. Hubert T. Lacroix, president and CEO of the public broadcaster, said at its CRTC licence renewal hearing last fall that “the financial crisis is real” as he called for more licensing flexibility to move around programming and spending. Anne Trueman, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), said in an emailed statement that CBC’s initiative is positive. “We think branded entertainment can be a creative method to help fund feature films and television productions,” she wrote. “The industry at large is looking at all kinds of new and innovative funding models including branded entertainment, crowd sourcing and building international partnerships to generate more revenues for production.” McDonald said CBC is “really excited” about the new initiative as CBC leads innovation and creativity from a business standpoint and encourages collaboration and partnerships before a show has been fully realized. “Our goal is always to give the very best of everything we have to the viewers and visitors to our sites. There’s no question that this will continue to just ride the top of that crest,” she said. Nielsen said he is surprised that CBC is excited about the branded entertainment initiative because he feels the idea was probably accepted reluctantly. “I’m not so much critical, as I am sad that we have reached this state of affairs,” he said. David Kinahan, a spokesman for the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC), said by email Friday that Canada's screenwriters often discuss the issue of product integration, which was in focus at the WGC’s annual National Forum in 2010. At that forum, screenwriters said they are “increasingly being pressured to include ‘brand integration’ in series TV with little regard to the nature of the show, its characters or identity,” Kinahan said. Writers and creators have “little or no say” in product placement arrangements, he said. “Not only do they have no control over it, they receive no direct benefit for assuming the double duty of screenwriter and ad exec (very different skills),” Kinahan wrote. “The WGC is concerned that this is a slippery slope and it seems to be getting more treacherous as broadcasters look for new sources of revenues.” In its criteria, CBC said it is not asking producers to approach brands. “We will provide the partnership and are looking to the independent production community for their best creative concepts,” the release said. —With reporting by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

CBC push for daytime ‘branded entertainment’ removes creative power, producer says

Broadcast | April 5, 2013

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