A licence to entertain

Chris McEvilly FCCA tells Colette Steckel why he quit England to start a new life in Canada and how he got to know The Simpsons

Back in February this year, The Simpsons, the fictional, and dysfunctional, American family once lambasted by George Bush Snr for setting a bad example to the masses, celebrated its 300th episode. Quite an achievement, given that The Simpsons started off over a decade ago as a brief animated short, aired during The Tracey Ullman Show. Now into its 14th season, The Simpsons is translated into umpteen languages (quite how 'eat my shorts' crosses linguistic borders is anybody's guess), and broadcast worldwide. Even the characters' catchphrases are in the dictionary. All of which explains why The Simpsons has become a veritable moneyspinner for Fox, the producer that owns the rights to the series.

'The Simpsons is phenomenally popular in Canada. You can watch an episode of The Simpsons at almost any time of the day anywhere in the country'someone will be broadcasting it,' notes Chris McEvilly, controller of Fox/Incendo, the largest distributor of television programming in Canada. Fox/Incendo sells the rights to broadcast The Simpsons to different tiers of Canadian broadcasters, from the national networks to regional stations and speciality cable services.

Once the series ends, Fox/Incendo can then resell the licence to numerous networks and stations throughout Canada, stipulating time slots in which the programme can be broadcast. 'With a product like The Simpsons, we divide the country into territories and time zones. So one television broadcaster will be able to air an episode between, say, 3pm and 5pm, another broadcaster between 5pm and 7pm, and so on. It takes a lot of work to monitor, but that way we make sure we maximise the opportunities for selling the rights,' explains Chris. 'Many of the programmes to which we hold the rights are resold, but nothing compares to the licensing potential of The Simpsons. It's unbelievable.'

Fox/Incendo is a Canadian joint venture between Twentieth Century Fox International Television and Incendo Media, a Montreal-based company founded two years ago by industry veterans Stephen Greenberg and Jean Bureau. The Fox connection allows access to shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Malcolm in the Middle and the addictive real-time thriller 24. While Incendo represents producers like Hearst Entertainment (which specialises in reality programming, lifestyle series and made for television movies), Dick Clark Productions (which owns the rights to the Golden Globes and American Music Awards), and HBO (home to the acclaimed series The Sopranos and Six Feet Under). In other words, Fox/Incendo has many US-produced prime time shows wrapped up.

So high is the demand for US programming in Canada, that the Canadian telecommunications regulator, CRTC, introduced an initiative to encourage the financing and broadcasting of high-quality Canadian television productions in English and French. Large multi-station ownership groups, such as CTV and Global, have to broadcast at least eight hours of Canadian content a week, whereas public network CBC devotes the majority of its prime time slots to Canadian programmes. All of Canada's private networks, however, rely on filling their schedules with US programming, which is less expensive than creating original Canadian programmes.

'Broadcasters can buy a programme from the US at a fraction of the cost of making their own,' remarks Chris. He has a point. The simulcast rights to a popular US drama series can go for about half the cost of licensing a Canadian programme. Not only that, a popular US series benefits from aggressive promotion in the US and the promise of huge audiences and premium advertising. Little wonder then that networks choose assured profit over their collective national conscience.

Chris agrees that selling the rights to American programmes in Canada is big business, with Fox/Incendo raking in hundreds of millions of dollars over the past few years. 'Our culture in Canada is so influenced by the US. In countries like Britain, there are a lot of home-grown productions broadcast on television and viewers form a relationship with the characters in those shows. But in Canada, US magazines out-sell Canadian magazines for similar reasons; greater name recognition and production values. Even our magazines have American stars in them, and our older generation grew up with American television stations while our younger generation can't get enough of American television shows.' Some Canadian shows are successful though, particularly those produced in French for the province of Quebec.

Give me sunshine

A citizen of Canada for over 30 years, Chris confesses that he still misses Britain (where he spent most of his youth) and, on occasion, the BBC. He emigrated to Canada in 1972, after a friend and former work colleague invited him to visit Toronto for a long weekend. On a second visit with his wife a year later, he started looking into job opportunities. 'Back in those days, I found it depressing living in England. It was cold, wet, and the economy was in a bad way. In contrast, Canada seemed full of sunshine, space and hope.'

With experience in accounting, gained during a six-year stint at British Airways, Chris found it easy to get work in Toronto, joining a medium-sized accounting firm within days of his arrival. Keen to get an international accounting qualification and unsure whether he would return to Britain in the near future, he chose to complete his ACCA studies via a correspondence course. 'I had the fun of learning about Canadian tax and accounting while at the office, and then I'd go home and study the English system. It was a bit confusing at times,' he laughs. Once qualified, he left practice to work as a controller for a number of businesses in Toronto, before temporarily putting his career on hold to look after his young daughter. He spent the following few years working as a freelance accountant from his basement, but felt the isolation wasn't doing him or his career any favours. Full-time work in the city beckoned.

He joined Fox/Incendo, a small office of 12 staff in Toronto with a further three in Montreal, four years ago at the age of 53; something he points out as being quite a feat in a world where experience and maturity doesn't always win over youth. 'Being in my fifties, I never thought I could get a job like this one. The interesting thing was that the company previously had a couple of newly-qualified controllers and they lasted only long enough to get a controllership on their resumé before moving on.' Chris keeps track of myriad contracts with broadcasters in Canada, reviews billings, writes financial reports and regularly deals with US producers and Canadian licencees. 'Being a bean counter has never been my thing. I've always preferred the challenges of a managerial role and I'm really happy in this job,' he reasons.

Although the business of distributing television programming in Canada is a fairly secure one, Fox/Incendo is not entirely immune to the issues affecting the broadcasting industry in the country. Key among them is the tricky problem of signal piracy. Despite police crackdowns on the illegal ownership of satellite dishes that are able to decode encrypted satellite signals and receive broadcasts for free, a black market industry in signal theft continues to thrive. This has a potentially devastating effect on many cable and satellite channels in Canada, which are financed by customer subscriptions. Further down the chain, producers and programme rights holders will potentially lose revenue if channels are unable to invest in Canadian programming through lost revenues. It's enough to raise concerns in the industry, which has called on government departments and law enforcement agencies to increase their efforts in combating signal theft.

But despite the emerging threats, it's unlikely that Canadian cable and satellite broadcasters will cut their expenditure on US programmes. Not when most of the country is avidly waiting for the next episode of the latest must-see series. Even Chris, who admits he isn't a 'big television watcher', confesses to devoting one night of his week to watching a simulcast of a Fox production. 'I'm hooked on the second series of 24,' he whispers before leaning back in his chair and sighing in exasperation. 'One of the frustrating things about broadcasting in North America is that a series will run for a few episodes and then it will drop off the dial for a while. You commit to a series and then it isn't on for weeks. I've lived in Canada for years, but I still can't get used to that. It wouldn't happen on the BBC now, would it?' I wouldn't bet on it.