With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1505828
READ THIS Whether you fancy yourself an architecture nut or you're just naturally curious about what the heck those colourful houses in Strathcona are all about, Exploring Vancouver: Ten Tours of the City and Its Buildings by Harold Kalman and Robin Ward has something for pretty much anyone with a passing interest in the city itself. The fifth edition is the most comprehensive yet, with more than 400 entries over 10 self-guided tours that highlight significant buildings from all eras of the city and explore how, why and by whom the city's urban environment was created. Harbour Publishing, 366 pages, softback, $29.95. £ AI has been cited as a key issue in the SAG strike, includ- ing the possibility that extras could be digitally generated. The threat of AI also looms over writers' rooms, which are already being replaced by so- called "mini rooms" with fewer jobs for young writers to learn their craft, an issue raised by Game of Thrones writer George R.R. Martin, among others. "Is space being made for new writers in the industry?" Heaton asks. They may not pay hand- some residuals, but not long ago streaming services did cre- ate a boom in B.C. production. Spurred partly by increased competition and partly by the stay-at-home entertainment trend created by the pandemic, streamers like Netflix, Disney+, Hulu, Paramount Plus and NBC Universal went into production hyperdrive, green-lighting se- ries at an unprecedented rate. One local producer (who wished to remain anonymous) says the B.C. situation got cra- zy at the height of the stream- ing wars. "We went from doing about 30 productions on a good day to 60, which was a psychotic way to do business," he says. "We started to train crew to get up to that level. You're hiring kids straight out of film school, who don't know what they're doing, and they expect to get paid overscale rates, because the demand was just so crazy. But at some point it had to end, because it could not possibly be profitable." Last year the bubble burst. In April 2022, Netflix stock plummeted—the company lost over US$50 billion in market capitalization. As CNBC reported at the time, "Netflix said several headwinds are affecting growth, including increasing competi- tion and the lifting of pandemic restrictions. In recent months people have been spending less time on digital platforms as vaccines rolled out and man- dates eased." Disney, NBC Universal and Paramount collectively ac- cumulated more than US$8.3 billion in streaming losses. The industry began to throttle back and, like other production cen- tres, Vancouver felt the effects. Heaton points out that the boom-and-bust cycle has hap- pened before, such as when the BC Liberal government led by Premier Christy Clark refused to match Ontario production tax credits. "There was a huge shutdown in production and a big panic," he says. "The [government's] assumption was productions will still come because we have all this won- derful scenery and the Cana- dian dollar is 30 percent lower. But productions are going to go where they get the most for their money." As for the current decline, Heaton believes it's not just the streaming slowdown and the strike. "I think Bill C-11 has had an impact as well," he says. Passed in April, Bill C-11 gives the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Com- mission ( CRTC) broad authority to regulate streaming platforms, including YouTube and TikTok, as they already do with radio and television. The bill requires streaming platforms to "clearly promote and recommend Ca- nadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages." "U.S. streamers were very much pushing the government not to put in regulations on any kind of Canadian content pro- duction," Heaton says. If things are slower than two years ago, Heaton sees a silver lining. "Independent, low- budget people who are trying to make their first feature and haven't been able to get it off the ground because they weren't able to get crew, maybe they get a bit of a better deal so they can build a cabin and shoot a horror movie. We want a homegrown talent getting the chance to do that feature they've been nurs- ing along for two to five years. That, to me, is fantastic." And what of the grip's for- mula for evaluating a quality shoot? "I'm not gonna argue with a grip, man," Heaton laughs. "I love my crews. They're the lifeblood of the industry." £ ( the informer ) G O F I G U R E Hammer Home Nesting season is upon us (as nearly back-to- back September home and design shows at the Vancouver Convention Centre seem to suggest), so grab your swatches and spackle as we frame out the home reno business in B.C. By Melissa Edwards $14,919 Average reported spend by British Columbians who renovated their home last year 56% higher than 2021 66% of BCers who renovated hired at least one professional 15% borrowed money to pay for their reno Nationally, Canadians are expected to spend $59.4 billion this year on renovating their homes Top renovation project picks for BCers who renovated in the last year, according to a survey by Angus Reid for HomeStars: 39% INTERIOR PAINT 28% NEW APPLIANCES 25% BATHROOMS 19% FLOORS 14% EXTERIOR PAINT 13% KITCHEN 12% BASEMENT BCers are 2X more likely to paint their home exterior than the rest of Canada 35% OF HOPEFUL B.C. HOME RENOVATORS SAID THEY ARE DELAYING THEIR PLANS DUE TO THE RISING COST OF MATERIALS 13% said they would rather move than renovate HARBOUR PUBLISHING 14 BCBUSINESS.CA SEPTEMBER 2023