Being Ian deal could herald new thinking on convergence

Being Ian, an animated series about a film-crazy youngster produced by Vancouver independent producer Studio B Productions, has made such an impression on broadcast partner Corus Entertainment Inc. that it’s bought the entire online rights to the property. "I think this is really a different model," says Fantrust Entertainment Strategies president Catherine Warren, who works with Studio B as a digital entertainment consultant, of the deal. "This says, ‘We see this as licensed content, and we see it as having an intrinsic entertainment value in its own right and not as a brochure for a brand or a TV show.’" The deal will also see Studio B deliver another 10 broadcast episodes to accompany the 26 already in place. Studio B enlisted Warren in part to help better position the show and generate opportunities for additional revenue through multi-platform strategies. It’s a role Warren is comfortable with: building audiences is Fantrust’s raison d’etre, and the company recently organized a panel discussion about fan loyalty – with Warren moderating – at New Media BC’s Vidfest event in Vancouver last month (CNM, June 26/06). One corollary of the deal is that Being Ian will benefit from tighter integration with the YTV.com portal. "I think there’s a difference between a show site and one that’s bundled with a good…brand" like YTV, Warren says. She adds that while some of the show’s more sophisticated younger viewers figured out how to find the Being Ian domain on their own, having the show prominently featured on the YTV website will undoubtedly drive traffic from both those looking for Being Ian expressly and from it appearing alongside other shows. The broadcaster and the producer will also work together to develop content beyond the video clips currently housed on the beingian.com website, which are both culled from full-length broadcast episodes as well as created specifically for online. "Being Ian is a wonderful brand, and the potential for games, for example, for video shorts, is extraordinary," says Lucie Lalumière, VP and GM of interactive at Corus’ television division. "Right now they have some amount of online assets, but obviously we want to develop more with them over the next few months." For instance, to mark the end of the school year, Studio B also produced a special one-hour episode, Hurry for Hollywood, which aired on YTV on June 29. Mobile and video-on-demand offerings based on the show will also launch later this year. Of course, convergence between broadcast and online properties is nothing new, especially for children’s programming. "A lot of it – delivering to multiple platforms and rich, immersive Web sites – was certainly viable and being talked about in 1998," Warren notes. But with such honours under its belt as a Leo Award for best animation program and series from the Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Foundation of British Columbia and the 2006 Shaw Rocket Fund prize – the latter bestowed in part by a jury of school-aged children – Being Ian is clearly less about platforms than it is about compelling and entertaining storylines. What is changing, however, is the mindset that online content based on a TV property is often devalued compared with the broadcast ‘main event’ itself. "The big networks specialty channels starting to understand the...revenue model and they see it as more than marketing," Warren says. "There’s certainly a marketing bump that you can get from making your content accessible on multiple platforms and interactive, but I think it would be a business mistake to look at this…as a marketing strategy. It should be writ into the fundamentals of how are we going to deliver content in 2006, 2007 and beyond."

Being Ian deal could herald new thinking on convergence

Broadcast | July 11, 2006

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