Back in my hometown Vancouver BC this weekend I had a chat with an old friend Clare Hodge, who I met when she was the Executive Director at Women in Film and Video Vancouver years ago, She has a new gig now at a website called SuperU, owned by Canadian broadcaster Super Channel, who are looking for content (and presumably viewers) online. Their scheme is to offer a contest to filmmakers, who can win cash and broadcast opportunities for their films. The site is (I’m assuming) being publicized through Super Channel itself as well as through Facebook, twitter and other more conventional promotional means, such as postcards. They also plan to market their library of films to other broadcasters as a middleman, taking no commission.

The challenge for SuperU is probably not finding content. Even though there are places that are more well-known for exposing User Generated Content, filmmakers will naturally be drawn to a venue where a chance for actual revenue and broadcast potential exists. Indeed, if a certain bar is set, then the site can expect to receive films of a lot higher caliber than typical YouTube vids.

Finding the audience is more enigmatic. Can broadcasters overcome the well-documented challenges of monetizing UGC by making it work for TV? Will televised UGC make other UGC more valuable (and if so, why doesn’t Bob Saget have a huge career right now)? Will this finally be the bridge between film and television that has been designed disfunctionally so many times before?

It looks like SuperU is only catering to Canadians at the moment (this is the kind of scheme born out of public-private partnerships) but it will be interesting to see how things develop.

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