By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Bell said Tuesday it wants foreign streamers to partner with the domestic broadcasters to co-produce and distribute Canadian content at home and abroad.
Representatives from the broadcaster said on the second day of the CRTC’s examination of the implementation of contributions to Canadian content funds that it is challenging to monetize CanCon because it’s distributed over a small population.
While Bell said a growth in production funds will help make more content, there’s also the opportunity to nudge for cooperation with the digital platforms.
“We’ve tried on several occasions to co-produce, to look for opportunities to make true Canadian content that we can share in some way — that they can use globally and we can use in Canada — and it’s not come to fruition as of yet,” said Justin Stockman, Bell’s vice president of content development and programming.
“Their [streamers] business model is to come into territories, use their global heft and take share from the local players, and part of that is not allowing us to have the streaming rights because they want the streaming rights. There’s gotta be a way that we can both have the streaming rights and work together, and we hope that through the creation of these funds — and whatever rules are put on those funds to be able to access them that’s encouraged — that we can make this a sustainable streaming model for us in the future to create Canadian content.”
Canada’s domestic broadcasters have been concerned about the cord cutters who have flocked to the increasing number of direct-to-consumer delivery platforms, which are often owned by companies that have the rights to the content that the Canadian broadcasters used to just buy and deliver to Canadians themselves.
Bell said not being able to acquire that content hinders its ability to fund Canadian content and news, which the broadcaster said should be bolstered by contributions to a news fund.
The broadcasters and media companies like Corus have also expressed concern about the rising cost of foreign content that plays an important role in keeping it afloat.
Bell said it hopes with streamer partnerships and more money coming from funding that the balance can be corrected – that is, the content acquisition costs can come down.
“We want to get to the position where the funding model creates more business cases that we’re able to do that in partnership with the streamers, and that’s the way we see the market moving,” said Jonathan Daniels, vice president of regulatory law at Bell.
But Stockman added in the company’s opening statement that, “international sales are not and should not be our primary goal when investing in Canadian content. Our primary goal is to create content for Canadians that represents us as a country. We cannot diminish our unique Canadian stories in the hopes of landing sales abroad.”
Although Bell did outline the case for more cooperation in the industry, it, like Quebecor on Monday, urged the CRTC to look expeditiously at the current situation with regulatory burdens placed on the broadcasters as they wade through a bad advertising climate and said foreign competition.
“We are frustrated because, frankly, we do not believe the CRTC is adequately addressing this reality,” Daniels said in the company’s opening, adding the company was surprised to see the regulatory issue sidelined to make way for this proceeding.
Bell is challenging in court the CRTC’s decision to administratively renew its broadcasting licenses.
“We did this because we wanted to send a message, which I will bluntly restate here,” Daniels said. “Your priorities are backwards. Traditional broadcasters, the lynchpin of the Canadian broadcasting system, need relief – and we need it now.”
The CRTC has already proposed temporarily reducing the regulatory burdens on Corus, considering the financial struggles of the pure play media company. It specifically noted that Corus is not a vertically integrated company, which Bell is.
On the first day of the hearing, witnesses proposed percentages of previous year’s Canadian broadcasting revenues going toward a mandatory base contribution to support Canadian content funds. The Motion Picture Association said Monday no such base contribution is needed, claiming that it would add burdens that will harm its existing cooperation with Canadian producers.
The Directors Guild of Canada also pitched Tuesday the importance of a 5 per cent base contribution from online services, which it said would translate to about $200 million a year for third-party production funds.
The CRTC is also proposing that if those subject to regulation do not contribute all their obligations to the base amount, they would also be able to make contributions to a category of various programming, such as local news and training and development. A third category would be “intangible” contributions, which could involve making Canadian content more prominent and discoverable, creating a back catalogue of that content, or pitching an idea of equivalence to the regulator.
On Tuesday, Google said the CRTC is putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, when it comes to considering a mandatory contribution before going through the exercise of more clearly defining Canadian content – which is part of its roadmap to the Online Streaming Act’s implementation.
Google representatives pitched YouTube’s platform Tuesday as doing some heavy lifting when it comes to assisting Canadian creators in getting their stories out, including providing them an ongoing share of the revenues their videos generate, continued support through “partner managers,” sponsorships, and marketing activities.
The search engine giant said all of this should contribute to the evaluation before the CRTC sets base contribution levels.
Screenshot of Jonathan Daniels, vice president of regulatory law at Bell, at the CRTC’s hearing on the modernization of the Broadcasting Act.
