Australian trade mission expected to result in business opportunities for industry

A dozen Canadian new media producers and funders are looking forward to a government-supported trade mission to Australia and Singapore as an opportunity to establish new contacts, find partnership opportunities and sell product. The mission, from February 19 to March 9, sees the producers on a four-city tour that includes Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Singapore. Events and meetings are planned with broadcasters, producers, research institutes and others, including participation in a pitch session that has twinned Canadian companies with Australian counterparts with the reward of co-production dollars at the end. The mission, being organized by the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund and with the financial support of the Consulate General in Sydney and others, is aimed at increasing Canadian exports to Australia, and to encourage Australian investment in this country. Events on the schedule include participation in the Australian International Documentary Conference (AIDC), the Adelaide Film Festival, and lunches and receptions with groups including the South Australian Film Corporation, ABC Studios, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, the Australian Film Commission, the Australian Interactive Media Industry Association, Singapore’s Media Development Authority, the Infocomm Development Authority and others. The initiative grows in large part out of an exploratory trip by Bell Fund financial director Charles Zamaria in 2003. In a report that grew out of that trip, Zamaria concluded that similarities between Australia and Canada could lead to greater cooperation. In a report deriving from that trip, Zamaria finds: "Partnerships and co-production activities – mostly informal in nature given the economy of scale of this sector – is an excellent way to move forward to establish sustainable business arrangements and to provide more opportunities for producers from both countries to tap into new markets, and for more viable growth and development via greater distribution potential. "Producers from both countries very much respect the local market intelligence possessed by the other. Australian producers feel that access to the profitable U.S. market can be facilitated via co-partnership and business relationships with Canadian new media companies. Canadian producers believe that Australian producers and distributors provide beneficial market intelligence and potential access to the SE Asian market for sale and distribution of their content, products and services." In addition to building relationships between producers – or cementing those where they already exist, it’s likely the mission will also have as a focus the creation of a co-production treaty between Australia and Canada for new media products. Several lunches and receptions have been booked with Canadian trade officials, and it’s expected there will be significant discussion for how to put such a treaty on a solid path. Producers, however, are largely concerned with the business opportunities and market intelligence they will be able to gather. Several tell Canadian NEW MEDIA that the twinning opportunity they’ve had to do for the AIDC pitch session is already paying off. Several have existing relationships with Australian broadcasters and producers that they’ll be looking to strengthen, and the opportunity to learn more about alternative platforms in Australia, such as wireless, has them excited. Toronto-based marblemedia’s Mark Biship tells CNM that his company hasn’t yet worked with Australian firms, but the initial preparatory work going into the mission has been positive. The company has been partnered with a firm called the Kojo Group. "It’s a neat company and it’s actually a lot like us because they’re an integrated shop. They’ve kind of taken a bit of a different tack because they have a lot more on the service side, but are still focused on original content, as well, and have a division for television, a division for new media, but they specialize in DVD as well and kiosks. I mean, it’s all the stuff that we’re doing. We’ve talked to them quite a few times. We’re doing kiosk projects; we need a software partner. They do kiosk software... "It seems to be an interesting fit. And, as well, they have a similar mind-set that we have, which is the idea of having an integrated shop right across the board. So. Who knows? We kind of admitted at the end of our most recent call that even if nothing comes out of it, it’s a great opportunity and a great opportunity to kind of meet and understand what our counterparts are doing and watch how both companies are kind of growing." Besides that opportunity, Bishop says, marblemedia will also be looking to meet with broadcasters and producers about selling some of the products it already has. For instance, he notes, the company will be shopping around its This is Daniel Cook format. In addition, he’ll be looking to meet with academics since marblemedia is focused on research and development work, as seen in its Deaf Planet project. Another producer visiting Australia for the first time will be Diane Williamson of Waterloo ON’s Digital Wizards. She tells CNM that the similarities in culture, politics, history and language between the two countries make cooperation a natural direction to follow. Her primary interest is to discover what kinds of content there exist in a market for down under. "That can work across radio, television, print, new media, wireless. I mean, it’s basically the consumption of content. No matter which medium you’re working in, no matter what format, whatever the audience is consuming, there’s no reason why if you’ve picked the right content that it’s not going to work in both countries." Digital Wizards, which has embraced cross-platform content including print media, will be keen to find out whether opportunities exist in Australia for content that exploits alternative platforms. "We’re really pushing the envelope with the wireless capabilities in Canada, currently. We have Bell Mobility as a prototyping partner right now, and what our system will do is more advanced than their network can currently support. I’m really interested to see what Australia is doing in the area. "I’m assuming Australia is going to be ahead of Canada, as much as Korea and other nations are…It’s staggering what the potential is. It’s a matter of meeting people on the ground there and establishing those relationships so that we can start taking advantage of their advances. Wireless is one where they may, indeed, be ahead of us." Another of Canada’s convergent web shops is sending a representative. Mind’s Eye Interactive’s Gail Byranton also says the twinning opportunity is already paying dividends. "I think what I hope to achieve has already begun, in the sense that each team member has been partnered with an Australian producer, and it’s a really exciting prospect, just because you’re bridging the creative as well as the structural content and evaluating both areas and what you need to make it work in an international co-pro arrangement. So, for me, it’s already really hands-on in that way. So it’s just not a theoretical ‘we’re going to go on this trip and maybe I’ll meet some people and it’ll be interesting.’ The learning process has already begun and we’re not even there." Bryanton says she’ll be taking part in the mission not just as a representative of her shop, but also for her home base of Saskatchewan. She has requested and received material from SaskFilm that describes the production landscape in the province, both for television and new media. Another participant, Decode Entertainment’s Dan Fill, already has significant experience dealing with Australians. They have bought several of Decode’s convergent titles. Fill will be looking to expand on those relationships, and to increase Decode’s scope of activity into the country’s private broadcasters and producers beyond what he’s been able to do on previous trips. "One thing is that we haven’t done a co-production with Australia, so I’m very eager to see if we can make sense of that. The second thing is researching some of the other partners that are out there. There’s new studios that have gotten much more sophisticated, so I just want to kind of gauge what level they’re at. Most of our work on the interactive side has been with the ABC and with Nickelodeon, so I’d like to feel out the main networks. I tried to make some inroads there last time but I’d like to revisit that now and see what kind of opportunities are there. The big ones are Channel Seven, Nine and Ten. They’re the private players. They haven’t been as aggressive in trying – how should I put it? – experimental projects. I would like to talk to them and see what their strategies are and how I might fit with them. And then, I guess the last thing is solidifying our relationship with the people that we work with." An important Decode partner, Collideascope’s Steven Comeau, also has extensive experience in the Australian market. Comeau tells Canadian NEW MEDIA that his main goal is also to solidify existing relationships. "I’ve already invested a significant amount of time and energy in building a rapport with producers and broadcasters and people in the new media space in Australia," he says. "The main opportunity for me is because Australia is a foreign English language territory that has very similar culture to Canada. It’s an ideal market for Canadian content that’s done well in this country. So, what I’m looking to do is take a lot of what I do and find some ways to either localize it, sell it into, or partner with Australians. Because, basically, in a nutshell, they speak English and they’re not American." Canadian NEW MEDIA editor Jeff Leiper, with the assistance of the Consulate General of Sydney, will be accompanying the trade mission to provide full coverage of the events.

Australian trade mission expected to result in business opportunities for industry

News | 02/04/2005 5:00 am EST

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