Creative groups lobbying for tax credits on content development

Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal is lobbying both the Alberta and Ontario governments about their tax credit policies on film and television production in the provinces. The registrations, filed this month, seek to encourage the promotion, or maintenance of, tax benefits for content production in the provinces. The Ontario government has pledged in its most recent budget to maintain three refundable tax credits and to make receiving those benefits faster, while the April-elected United Conservative Party in Alberta has promised to turn existing grants into tax credits to compete with other provinces. The New York-based company registered with the Alberta government to “promote changes to the tax treatment of film and television production that is competitive with other jurisdictions.” In Ontario, it registered to ensure that the government’s policies, including the Ontario Production Services Tax Credit, “encourage the development of film and television production” in the province. A lobbyist for the company did not return a request for comment. British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec all have some form of tax credit for this kind of content production. The UCP said in its campaign plank that converting the Screen-based Production grant into a tax credit would give the province “greater flexibility” to allow the province to compete for projects with BC and Ontario. NBCUniversal, which last year launched in Canada a reality TV streaming service called Hayu, joins similar lobby activity by labour union the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) in Alberta, which wants to work with that government to create the film tax credit; Toronto-based Entertainment One Ltd. in Ontario and Quebecor Inc. in Quebec. Quebecor, for its part, lobbied this month seeking a five-year commitment from the minister of finance to ensure tax credits are guaranteed for its MELS film studios. Last month, ACTRA, the Directors Guild of Canada, and the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) launched a campaign to have members ask candidates in the upcoming federal election about whether they support legislation and regulation that would force beneficiaries of the Canadian broadcasting and telecommunications systems to invest in Canadian programming. The question echoes a report by the CRTC that recommends the government consider making all players, including foreign over-the-top service providers, contribute to the system in an equitable manner. The coalition also seeks to ask federal figures what their plans are to ensure CBC/Radio-Canada gets “adequate and consistent funding, free from political influence” and whether they would commit to strengthening copyright laws to mitigate “digital theft.” The lobbying activity comes as foreign streaming giants launch their own direct-to-consumer products and as some establish production houses in the country. More recently, Walt Disney Co. announced that its Disney+ streaming service will launch in Canada on November 12. In February, Netflix Inc. leased studio and office space in Toronto, after a deal with the federal government in September 2017 to commit $500 million over five years toward content production in the country. Last year, U.S. studio CBS said it would open a production hub in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga. That same year, the New York-based company launched its All Access streaming service in Canada. Late last year, the federal government announced nearly $600 million in tax benefits for newspapers, with broadcasters, who are excluded from them, clamouring for a piece of the pie. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Creative groups lobbying for tax credits on content development

Broadcast | September 3, 2019

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Creative groups lobbying for tax credits on content development

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