CanCon producers silent on CBC-Netflix rift

Organizations that represent important stakeholders in the field of Canadian content are staying relatively mum on the revelation that the CBC/Radio-Canada would stop collaborating with Netflix Inc., though the union representing Canada's English-language screenwriters has endorsed Tait's decision. Last week, CBC president Catharine Tait told the Content Canada podcast that the public broadcaster is “not going to do deals that hurt the long-term viability of our domestic industry,” comments which were then reported in the Financial Post yesterday. The CBC today declined to expand on Tait’s remarks, rather pointing to another Tait quote not ruling out future collaboration with the internet-broadcast giant. Such a move would be a shift from the strategy the public broadcaster began several years ago, when it began partnering with the streaming giant on shows like Alias Grace and Anne With an E. Then CBC CEO Hubert Lacrioix said such partnerships were necessary to bring CBC productions to an international audience. In addition to exposure to a global audience, such partnerships also bring bigger budgets to productions than CBC could manage on its own, as former CBC vice-president of English services Heather Conway pointed out in an interview with industry publication Cartt last year. She noted that 10 episodes of Netflix’ The Crown cost as much as “the entire CBC non-news budget for a year.” Conway noted at the time that partnerships with international companies "will be vital to tell Canadian stories on the scope and scale you saw with Anne with an E and Alias Grace." In December 2018, Tait said in an interview with the Toronto Star that partnerships with Netflix like the one that produced Anne with an E were “absolutely” the future of television. The Canadian Media Producers Association today declined to comment, saying through a spokesperson that it didn’t know enough about the CBC’s plans. The CMPA is one of many groups that has called on the government and the CRTC to regulate over-the-top streaming services like Netflix. The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA) did not respond to requests for comment. Directors Guild of Canada national executive director Dave Forget, while declining to comment on the specific remarks by Tait, said the decision also highlighted the question of taxation and regulation of Netflix and other OTTs. “We’ve been calling on government to modernize the regulatory regime for a while. We need to bring the global players into the system,” Forget said. The inclusion of Netflix in the Broadcasting Act is a prospect the web giant firmly rejects. CBC has its own streaming service, branded as Gem. Back in January, Tait compared the presence of Netflix in the Canadian media market to the role of British colonialism in India under the Raj. “I was thinking about the British Empire, and how if you were there and you were the viceroy of India, you would feel that you were doing only good for the people of India. Or similarly, if you were in French Africa, you would think, ‘I’m educating them, I’m bringing their resources to the world, and I am helping them,” Tait said during a panel discussion at an industry event in Ottawa. Subscriptions to OTT services amongst Canadians have steadily climbed in recent years. The CBC’s own Media Technology Monitor project reported in 2018 that some 65 per cent of anglophone Canadians subscribed to OTT services like Netflix. A 2018 study by Ampere Analysis reported that co-productions with OTT services were trending upwards, with analyst Olivia Deane specifically citing the co-productions Anne with an E, Degrassi: Next Class, and Between -- collaborations between Netflix and CBC, DHX Media Ltd., and BCE Inc.’s CityTV respectively. It noted that such partnerships allow domestic producers to create higher quality content with bigger budgets provided upfront by the streaming services. According to Friends of Canadian Broadcasting president Daniel Bernhard, the move by the CBC “puts the ball in politicians’ court.” “The CBC has said ‘we want to tell Canadian stories, we don’t want to work with an Internet broadcaster that refuses to contribute to the system,’” Bernhard said in a phone interview. “Now the question is: alright, well is the government prepared to take steps to make sure that the CBC has the money to be able to continue to produce these shows, without begging daddy Netflix for crumbs.” The decision by Tait will be a positive step, Bernhard said, if it reinforces the need for Netflix to be taxed and the CBC to be better funded. The Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, too, has long called in to question Netflix’s ability to deliver Canadian content. Bernhard said that, as for CBC programs distributed by Netflix like Schitt’s Creek and Kim’s Convenience, if the CBC-produced content is good enough, the web giant would continue to buy them. In a statement Thursday afternoon executive director of the Writers Guild of Canada Maureen Parker said that the guild shares Tait's concerns. "Netflix’s contribution must be part of a regulatory framework that ensures their investments are in truly Canadian content, driven by Canadian talent and a Canadian authorial voice," Parker said in the statement. "We do not need more service production—this is Canada, not Anytown, USA." — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

CanCon producers silent on CBC-Netflix rift

Broadcast | October 9, 2019

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CanCon producers silent on CBC-Netflix rift

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