The post-broadcast, post-border world

Globalization -- the flow of goods, ideas, and people across international boundaries --  is nothing new. It’s been around for centuries, enabling the movement of everything from tea in cargo ships to cultural and social phenomena.

What is new is the expansion of these globalizing practices to the world of media production and distribution. In the music world the combination of globalization and the internet means pop hits from South Korea and Puerto Rico can freely cross national borders and become the most watched videos in the history of YouTube. In television it means that instead of thinking in terms of the infrastructure required for cable TV and fixed broadband, producers ought to consider new options for content delivery such as OTT and mobile.

To use my home country of Canada as an example, the impact of globalization on media seen in the form of homegrown YouTube personalities with massive global followings, such as Michael McCrudden of Before They Were Famous, Mitchell Moffitt and Gregory Brown of ASAP Science, and comic actress and musician Lilly Singh whose Superwoman channel now has over 2 billion views.

Another great example is The Indian Detective, slated for release on Netflix in mid December 2017. It's a co-production shot in India, South Africa, and Canada starring Russell Peters as a Toronto cop of Indian heritage who finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation while visiting his father in Mumbai.

Together the new delivery mechanisms for content as well as the new form factors and viewing preferences form the foundation of an entertainment industry that's dramatically different from the one largely defined by broadcasters, cable companies, and fixed television schedules.

To provide some perspectives on the various industry changes afoot the CMF commissioned me to write a White Paper entitled Adjust Your Thinking: The New Realities of Competing in a Global Media Market.

It's both a standalone document and a companion piece to the series of 7 Fact Sheets released by the CMF over the course of Fall 2017 which analyzed key geographic regions in the global media and entertainment industries.

Adjust Your Thinking: The New Realities of Competing in a Global Media Market was released this week at the Whistler Film Festival, and can be found here.