Perspectives
The Currency of Audience: How the Connection Between IP and Audiences Leads to a Stronger Media Industry
Earlier issues of Perspectives examined the seismic shifts in the audiovisual (AV) and the interactive digital media (IDM) industries. New technologies, algorithms, and digital platforms mean that the industry is evolving faster than ever before, leaving creators with a seemingly endless task of staying up to date.
However, this third issue of Perspectives, The Currency of Audience, brings us back to basics. How might intellectual property (IP) – or rather, an industry centered around harnessing its real value – answer these foundational shifts?
IP is undoubtedly a broad topic within our industry. It’s used to describe copyright, underlying rights, intangible assets, and all other legal elements related to a creative project. The Currency of Audience, on the other hand, investigates IP in terms of the story that it tells. It explores the underlying creation and ideation that is developed and then turned into individual content.
The maxim “content is king” has long defined the sector, but our industry is built on IP. It’s what’s behind every film set, gaming engine, and social media channel. As digital platforms themselves are being viewed as audience sources, IP is the real reason why we flock to certain creators and their points of view. In a moment where policymakers and industry alike are redefining Canadian stories and seeking to understand what sets them apart in a highly competitive global media market, this issue revisits the ways in which we mobilize and support IP to offer strategies for unlocking success.
Richard Koo
Vice President, Analytics and Strategic Insights
Sections
Intro: The Critical Relationship between IP and Audience
What do we really mean when we talk about IP? The film? The videogame? Or the underlying concept, world, or core story? How does thinking differently about IP reshape our understanding of development, audience engagement, and authentic storytelling, in addition to positioning Canadian content creators for success?
Read moreSection 1: IP, Content, and Finding Audiences in the Global Ecosystem
We live in an age of abundance—multiple screens provide seemingly infinite hours of screen-based content. Discoverability is a challenge. The visibility and accessibility or “prominence” of content is one part of the equation. Understanding IP as an audience strategy, not just a content one, gives creators a greater role in the discoverability of their content.
Read moreSection 2: IP, Audience, and Authenticity: Strategies for Sector Strength
Early audience engagement and authentic storytelling are the cornerstones of recent national and international Canadian successes. Rights ownership, and the opportunity to exploit content in the marketplace, leads to stronger companies and contributes to overall sector resilience. How can IP development be refocused to strengthen companies, promote diverse voices and storytelling, and contribute to overall sector resilience?
Read moreSection 3: Back to the Future: Transmedia Strategies for Young Audiences
“Back to the Future” revisits transmedia, a subject covered previously in the CMF’s Key Trends Report. The buzzword once referred to incorporating digital media components into traditional broadcast storytelling. Since then, the term has fallen out of fashion, and the emerging digital media platforms of the 2010s are solidly established, especially in children and youth media. But is the concept truly gone, or has it been incorporated into the larger industry?
Read moreCredits
The Canada Media Fund (CMF) fosters, develops, finances and promotes the production of Canadian content and applications for all audiovisual media platforms. The CMF guides Canadian content towards a competitive global environment by fostering industry innovation, rewarding success, enabling a diversity of voice, and promoting access to content through public and private sector partnerships. The CMF receives financial contributions from the Government of Canada and Canada’s cable, satellite and IPTV distributors.
CMF Foresight and Innovation
Vice President, Analytics and Strategic Insights
Richard Koo
Research Lead, Foresight and Innovation
Jon Montes
Analyst, Foresight and Innovation
Corinne Darche
Nordicity
CEO & Managing Partner
Kristian Roberts
AV Sector Lead
Nicole Matiation
Senior Consultant
Christiana Puntillo
Senior Analyst
Charlotte Panneton
Content
Writing
Corinne Darche
Nicole Matiation
Charlotte Panneton
Christiana Puntillo
Kristian Roberts
Translation
Rime El Jadidi