Apple and the new 'golden age' of television: Don Pittis

This week, British science fiction writer Charles Stross had somethingto crow about.

"So, I've been sitting on this news for a while, but I'm now allowed to say: THE LAUNDRY FILES has been optioned for TV," he tweeted.

Stross's tongue-in-cheeknovels, where nerdishpeople accidentally discover that complex math releases dangerous horrors and are therefore dragooned into a penny-pinching British civil service department nicknamed The Laundry to clean up the mess, havebeen optioned before.

But Apple's announcement this weekthat it's pouringbillions into the race for TV streaming supremacy means thatthis timeStross,and many more content producers like him, may actually see theirprojects go to air before theiroptions expire.

Race for streaming supremacy

Of course, there are always more aspiring television writers than TV shows, but suddenly it seems we are in an era where the balance is shifting a little bit.

Golden ages are frequentlyproclaimed, but a glance at the selection oftelevision options suggests something new is happening.

Even for those of uswho spend most of our recreational hours reading, suddenly many of us find TV is worth watching again as companies like Netflixopen their wallets to risky projects in hope of appealing to every niche. And the Canadian production industry is a major beneficiary.

"The bat signal was above the Vancouver art gallery a couple of weeks ago and that got people quite excited," saidPremGill, CEO of the non-profit economic development groupCreative BC, the day after the Apple announcement.

Once again the West Coast city was a stand in, this time for Gotham,as the American TV network The CW shotthe Batwomanpilot using Canadian crews and production facilities.

Canadian TV production skills are some of the best in the world and with the loonielow and predicted to go lower, the rush for talent is expected to continue.

How long can it last?

Gill points outApple is already producing programming in British Columbia, including the 10-part series See, starring Jason Momoa. Now that the company is officially upping its game, she expects the Vancouver industry will remain strong.

Apple and Neflix are obviously far from alone. Hulu, which is majority owned by Disney, is a big player, and Disney is launching another streaming servicelater this year.

And while those big names are putting in money, smaller production companies, like the one that has the rights to the Strossbooks, and national broadcasterssuch as the CBC and the BBC, produce much of the content.

Those providers can commission shows knowing it's worth spending more for an international streaming buy-in.

There's no guarantee it can last, but for now, Gill says, a wider variety of TV is being made thanwe have ever seen before.

"What's interesting about a Netflix is that even here in Canada, if you have a Netflix subscription, youcan see content fromaround the world," Gill said.

If Apple's new service does the same thing opening the floodgates to episodic entertainment and bespoke films a few cuts above conventional TV that could be good for us as viewers and good for us as a country that contributes to top quality content. It will be good for jobs, too.

Apple everything

But critics have warned that despite the streaming success of work by Canadian authors and show makers, there is a danger Canadian content could be swamped by a tsunami ofglobal production, much of it not very good. Standing in for New York and Chicago just doesn't cut it.

There are also fears that Apple moving into TV, news subscriptions, credit cards and everything else it already does, means more oligopolisticpower for the American post-industrial tech behemoths. But few producers are going to turn down the company's money on that basis.

"This is a very hot industry. We really are in the golden age of content creation," saidMagaliSimard, who co-ordinates TV and film production for the City of Toronto.

Simard says that if Apple keeps the promises it made this week, the high-tech giant will be makinghuge new investments in top quality, interestingprogramming.

Netflix, which currentlyfeels like the basic cable of streaming television, seems to be the one to beat. As Apple spends major cashto try to capture the Netflix audience, and Netflixfights back, the industry expects to see a boom.

"A city like Toronto, cities like Vancouver, like Montrealin Canada are all major content production cities, and with the onslaught of new projects and production money, which really gets projects green-lit way faster thanbefore, we all need to up our game," saidSimard.

Of course, the question raised by many is,with so much content being created, who can possibly consume it all?

"It's hard to keep up for everyone," Simard said. "The choice is endless."

'Nobody has a crystal ball'

And even if you'd like to watch a few shows offered by each of the streaming services, how many streaming service fees will you be willing to pay to access them? Many of us are likely to stick to one or two favourites, choosing the best. Presumably there will be winners and losers.

Perhaps as quality improves, perhaps as the bleakness of political reality drives us toward escapism, Apple, Netflix and the rest will not have to fight over their piece of the pie, but can make the pie bigger.

However it all ends, it is reasonable to expect, in the short term at least, a flowering of the video arts as the giants try to spend, and innovate, their way to preeminence.

"Nobody has a crystal ball," saidSimard. "But we are all pretty confident that the next five to 10 years is very solid."

Follow Don on Twitter @don_pittis