Industry, public disagree on biggest threats to CanCon: Heritage

Members of the public and cultural stakeholders don’t see eye to eye when it comes to identifying the biggest challenges facing the country’s cultural sector, according to info released Tuesday as Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly launched the public consultation phase of a review of Canada’s cultural institutions. “In the pre-consultation, public respondents indicated that the two most urgent challenges facing Canada’s cultural sector are foreign competition and making Canadian content stand out online,” said a discussion paper on the review of Canadian content in a digital world. First announced in April, the review is now open for public consultation until Nov. 25 via in-person discussions across the country led both by Joly and communities, social media events and through the review’s website. According to the department, nearly 10,000 members of the public and cultural stakeholders completed the pre-consultation questionnaire in the spring. An overview of the survey’s results put 41 per cent of consumers indicating foreign competition was the most urgent challenge facing the cultural sector, followed by 35.3 per cent who said it was making content stand out online, and 31.8 per cent who cited public funding that discourages risk-taking (respondents could pick up to three responses). Cultural stakeholders posed the same question put creator remuneration as the most-urgent challenge (54.4 per cent), followed by how public funding is allocated (33.7 per cent) and public funding that discourages risk taking (32.5 per cent). The pre-consultation focused the new public phase of the review on three key areas, the discussion paper said: focusing on citizens and creators, reflecting Canadian identities and promoting sound democracy, and catalyzing social and economic innovation. “Every day, we use our phones, our tablets and other devices to access music and apps, to watch movies and shows, to read and to research contemporary works of art. We all have our own way of enjoying Canadian culture,” Joly said in a press release. By 2020, nearly two-thirds of Canadians said they will use the Internet to access content, the paper said, and through that platform they will have broad choice, both domestic and foreign. “Unsurprisingly on platforms where there is almost infinite choice and no quotas (e.g. online music or video streaming), data has shown that Canadians’ consumption of Canadian content is lower,” the paper said. It added that “with so much content easily accessible, nurturing talent, curating content and promotion are increasing important — both for Canada’s national cultural institutions, such as CBC/Radio-Canada and the National Film Board, and for Canadian cultural entrepreneurs.” The way to move forward while respecting how Canadians want to engage with content “is not attempting to regulate content on the Internet, but focusing on how to best support Canada’s creators and cultural entrepreneurs in creating greater content and in competing globally for both Canadian and international audiences,” the discussion paper said, adding that the department is “committed to net neutrality — the idea that a public information network like the internet is most useful if all content, sites and platforms are treated equally.” In a press release, the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA), said it was “eager to contribute” to the consultation process. “Recent decisions from bodies like the CRTC have been eroding the approach that’s helped build a world-class industry,” Stephen Waddell, ACTRA national director, said in the release. “This consultation is an opportunity to embrace the key role creative talent plays, and ensure that balanced regulation is there to support them.” The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) said in press release Tuesday afternoon that it was enthusiastic about the consultations. “This review represents an unprecedented opportunity to develop policies that will support content creators and set our industry up for success for years to come,” Reynolds Mastin, CMPA president and CEO, said in the release, which also noted the CMPA would be hosting town halls for its membership and has created three internal task forces to study its own contribution to the review. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Industry, public disagree on biggest threats to CanCon: Heritage

Broadcast | September 13, 2016

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Industry, public disagree on biggest threats to CanCon: Heritage

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