The construction holidays may be over, but the summer audiovisual schedules have not yet said their last word. In the age of video-on-demand platforms, The duty wondered about the great place of cinema on the summer TV waves.
A few hours after the announcement of the disappearance of actress Olivia Newton-John on Monday, Télé-Québec jostled its programming to present greasethe cult musical that revealed it in 1978, next Saturday at prime time.
This film is one of those beacons — classics of the 7e art, both local and international — which the public television channel broadcasts throughout the summer, five evenings a week, and which provide it with higher ratings than its annual average. In 2021, it saw its market share drop from 3.6% on average at peak times to 4.8% during the summer season.
We all need to be told good stories
“Cinema brings consistency in terms of audience to Télé-Québec,” said Ian Oliveri, content manager at the broadcaster’s consumer content department. And to add: “With linear programming and our cultural and educational mandate, cinema is always relevant. Thanks to our very important curation work, we aim to marry quality to the general public. »
“We all need to be told good stories,” believes Mr. Oliveri, for whom this summer film event is an opportunity to introduce Quebecers to good films of all genres. “At Télé-Québec, we offer a wide variety of feature films from very different eras. In the same week, the public will be able to have access to an old Sergio Leone, but also to science fiction, a comedy, a drama or even a recent Quebec thriller. Sundays are also generally devoted to films from here, with their notoriety already acquired. “Summer, like the holiday season, is the time of year when we release our biggest titles, the films with the greatest potential in terms of audience,” he explains.
At Radio-Canada too, Canadian and Quebec films are a guarantee of better ratings. “In our summer schedule, the cinema box is granted at the end of the week, often on Friday evening,” explains Dany Meloul, general manager of Radio-Canada Television. And the time slot is doing well: the public broadcaster has gone from 220,000 viewers on average on Friday evenings in 2021 to 260,000 this year. “Beyond this great improvement, we know that listening is particularly live. This leads us to believe that there is a real interest from the public for this meeting, ”she says.
At Radio-Canada as at Télé-Québec, optimism is therefore in order as to the future of cinema on the airwaves.
The meeting effect
This summer, Télé-Québec is offering its viewers, among other things, Quebec films such as The great seductionby Jean-Francois Pouliot, Seraph: a man and his sinby Charles Binamé, and Fires, by Denis Villeneuve. The co-producer of this latest film, Luc Déry, is delighted: according to the founder and president of micro_scope, this TV offer is an essential complement to cinemas and to on-demand broadcasting, which makes it possible to reach a maximum number of spectators. .
Dany Meloul shares this opinion. “People have become used to picking up content when they want it, but when we create an appointment, the viewers are there. I also think that free access is a decisive element,” said the general manager of Radio-Canada Television.
Luc Déry also remembers thatFires drew nearly a million people when it first aired on television in 2014. “When you consider that the film was a resounding success when it was released in theaters, with a box office Quebec is an immense satisfaction,” says the producer. “WhatFires airing on television even today allows people to watch it a second time, then a third time, which the profusion of content on the platforms does not favor. »
Not to mention that conventional television still has its audience, he notes. “We don’t necessarily realize it, but there are also a lot of people who are not yet on Netflix, Crave and company. According to a survey conducted by the Academy of Digital Transformation (ATN) at Université Laval in January 2022, 57% of Quebecers said they had subscribed to Netflix, 16% to Club illico, 9% to ICI Tou.tv Extra and 8% in Crave.
“Quebec adults aged 18 to 54 are […] the most likely to subscribe to at least one paid service to watch films or series on the Internet, while subscription to a cable or fiber optic television service is more popular among adults aged 55 and over » , notes Bruno Guglielminetti, spokesman for the NETendances surveys at the ATN. Data that seems to corroborate the audience success of Télé-Québec’s summer movie nights: during spring-summer 2021 and 2022, nearly 60% of viewers in this time slot were indeed over the age of 55.
Take risks
The excellent performances of the great cinema classics on television also give programmers the opportunity to present films with a particular signature. “ Watch dogby Sophie Dupuis, I killed my motherby Xavier Dolan, and The mechanic, by Renée Beaulieu, for example, have their place on Télé-Québec,” says Ian Oliveri. “We want to give the public a taste for cinema by taking risks: summer makes that possible. »
With this in mind, Quebec public television presented the audacious The Life of Adele by French filmmaker Abdellatif Kechiche, as well asA fantastic womanin which Chilean director Sebastián Lelio recounts the life of a trans woman — sources of pride for Mr. Oliveri.
Finally, from a more down-to-earth point of view, we cannot ignore the place of income from television broadcasting licenses in the equation of Quebec film production. “This guarantees a certain income to distributors, who can then share it with producers and investors if the revenue is sufficient”, explains Luc Déry. A mechanism which then makes it possible to develop new projects which will then also have their place on summer TV.