APTN looking south for opportunity

The Aboriginal Peoples Television Network is hoping it can capitalize on an acceptance speech delivered by Leonardo DiCaprio at the recent Golden Globes and bring its unique style of TV to the United States.

“We’re talking to the cable companies now and satellite distributers in the U.S. It’s still at the negotiation stage with them,” said Jean La Rose, CEO with APTN. “This would be a purely commercial enterprise (in the U.S.). That’s why we have to secure carriage from some of the major distributors from there to ensure we have the opportunities to generate the revenues to create the programming.”

Whatever programming APTN manages to offer in the U.S. will come without the comfortable cushion it has been given by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.

When APTN first started operating in 1999, the CRTC designated APTN as a must-carry channel for cable and satellite.

“The reason CRTC made that mandatory carriage order for APTN was to be sure that cable and satellite companies would carry us because there was some negative reaction for them being forced to carry a Native channel. They felt there was no market for it, there was no interest in it and it would probably be a bust business within a year or two, so the CRTC decided that the only way to ensure that we were given an opportunity in the market place was to make us a mandatory service,” said La Rose.

That designation means that the current series of changes being brought about by the CRTC – which requires providers to offer a basic package of channels for no more than $25 per month, and also give customers the option of buying individual channels or small bundles – will not impact APTN.

But even though APTN will be part of the basic package, that doesn’t translate to more advertising revenue for the broadcasting network.

“The way advertising is sold in Canada is through what is called the audience rating… but APTN’s audience is not measured,” said La Rose.

Audience surveys are carried out in five or six major urban centres in Canada. Approximately 3,000 people are sampled and their viewing habits are used to determine what all Canadians watch.

“We believe that the service is faulty…. What it does do is it puts us at a disadvantage. About 40 to 45 per cent of our community is on reserve still. Those aren’t measured. So the measurement system doesn’t actually measure what our audience truly is. It only extrapolates from a very, very small percentage of mostly an all non-Native audience, who may watch us at some point in time,” said La Rose.

But recent occurrences, both in Canada and the U.S., have La Rose encouraged that APTN may start picking up more non-Native viewers.

At the Golden Globes, DiCaprio was presented with the best actor award for his starring role in The Revenant, which was filmed largely in southern Alberta and made use of a sizeable Indigenous cast.

“I want to share this award with all the First Nations peoples represented in this film and all the Indigenous communities around the world… It is time that we recognize your history and that we protect your Indigenous lands and corporate interests,” said DiCaprio in accepting his award.

It’s not the first time an actor has highlighted Indigenous peoples, says La Rose, who points to Marlon Brando, who refused his Oscar for The Godfather in 1973, because of how Native Americans were treated by the film industry.

The impact is short-lived, says La Rose, unless something carries the momentum. And that could be what is happening with DiCaprio’s comments coming on the heels of a new Canadian Prime Minister, who has pledged to change the country’s relationship with Aboriginal peoples.

“All of this generates a positive feeling in the community that things will change,” said La Rose.

That change could provide APTN with opportunities to work with other broadcasters to develop series that would appeal to Canadians as well as to Aboriginal people, or access more money through the Canada Media Fund to develop more programming so that “Canadians can get a different insight as to who we are.”

It may also result in opportunities for the network to gain a wider audience that then helps with advertising sales.

“There are opportunities and we are, through various initiatives, meeting with people in Ottawa to try to bring about some movement that would be beneficial to us and to our production community and also, we hope over time, our entire community across the country,” said La Rose.

With DiCaprio’s comments and interest from the Native American production community, who do not have an APTN equivalent in the U.S., APTN is looking south of the border.

“There’s a lot of support and interest with what we are attempting to do. I think it will help us generate possibly more opportunities for carriage in the U.S.,” said La Rose.

Moving into the U.S., he says, would allow APTN to develop more programming opportunities and pull on the expertise of Native American filmmakers. Negotiations are ongoing and if there is a favorable outcome, it will take at least nine to 12 months before APTN launches in the U.S.

Radio is also another area that APTN is presently examining.

Photo caption: The comedy television series Mohawk Girls is one of two shows that appears on APTN that was nominated for Canada Screen Awards. Mohawk Girls received five nominations while the drama Blackstone received one.