February 28, 2007
Canadian Television To Get Boosted, Sony & EMI Layoff Dozens, Second City Reality Contest Set For Summer
Former Alliance president Robert Lantos and former president of CBS/Tri-Star Pictures/Sony Pictures Jeff Sagansky have invested millions in TV production company Blueprint Entertainment in order to create better Canadian television. Lantos explains, "The strategy is simple: to design TV shows that from the ground floor are genuinely Canadian...[and] whose first sale is to a network in the U.S. In the States, they perceive these shows as being domestic, so they are able to be sold for a much higher price than any imported programming.” It's like what they did with Due South, so how can it be bad?
Former Toronto Police chief Jack Marks died last night.
EMI Canada and Sony BMG Music Canada are in the midst of big layoffs, which some blame on poor record sales and peer-to-peer file sharing programs. I'm getting really sick of major record labels blaming all of their low sales on LimeWire when they'd benefit from re-evaluating how they promote their music. You just can't create supergroups like the Backstreet Boys anymore, music dudes! Reach out to niche markets and use the internet to your advantage. Geez.
Prince Charles wants to ban McDonalds. Can he even do that?
CBC Television is putting out an Idol-style show this summer where contestants compete to be a Second City cast member. SCTV's Dave Thomas and Joe Flaherty are set to judge. Awesome?
Speaking of CBC, did you know that they have smoking rooms in their Toronto office? Scandal!
Photo courtesy of G©H, a regular contributor to our Torontoist Flickr Pool who is retiring to Edinburgh. Cheers!
|
I've known Blueprint since they first started their company (they've made programs like Whistler, Shoebox Zoo and Kenny vs. Spenny). Their model is simple: leverage the Canadian broadcasters and funding agencies in conjunction with a foreign (preferably an american) broadcaster thereby lowering the commissioning costs for the foreign broadcaster.
It isn't rocket science. The key difference is that the principals at Blueprint have the experience and connections that many other Canadian producers do not.
Neither EMI or Sony BMG commented on the layoffs. As well, the layoffs aren't all connected to poor record sales. They are a combo of varied problems including poor structuring in the companies; death of catalog sales; and year of putting off cutting down on staff.
Being that I am the Bureau chief for Billboard, I broke the story so I think I have a bit of inside tracking in what's going on here.
Larry LeBlanc
PS Nor do I think downloading kills record sales.