OTTAWA – The federal government has followed through on its commitment to top up the Canada Media Fund in the face of declining contributions from broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs). Minister of Canadian Heritage Melanie Joly first made the announcement last September when she unveiled Creative Canada.
Budget 2018 has committed $172 million more dollars over five years, starting this year, to maintain the CMF’s funding” at 2016-2017 levels. CMF will receive $15 million this year, $29 million in 2019-20 and then $42.5 million in the following three years.
The Liberals noted that the actual amount of money will vary each year depending on BDU contributions. “This approach will provide a stable source of funding to develop Canadian content and support good jobs, including for our writers, producers, directors, actors and crews,” it said.
CMF president and CEO Valerie Creighton lauded the government for the new cash noting that it “will trigger further investments and jobs in the creative sector.”
The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) also welcomed the federal commitment but noted the funding “will act as a stop gap measure” for the ongoing production of Canadian programming while regulatory reviews of the Broadcasting and Telecom Acts attempt to update Canada’s broadcasting system for a new largely digital era.
(While the feds announced the review of the Acts in last year’s budget, this year’s document was silent on that front.)
“It’s great to have a government that is both willing to listen and able to take decisive action. We see the announcement in today’s budget as the result of great collaboration – between Finance and Heritage, and between the government and the country’s production sector,” said Reynolds Mastin, president and CEO at the CMPA.
Some say though the federal government missed an opportunity in Budget 2018 to put Canadian digital platforms on an equal footing with international competitors. Quebecor suggested the Liberals are talking out of both sides of their mouth by claiming to want to support the middle class and foster innovation yet at the same time refusing to act in support of domestic, local businesses.
"Everywhere in the world, governments are taking concrete action to reclaim their fiscal sovereignty over digital platforms. Be it in Europe, Australia or Singapore, elected officials have realized the importance of doing so, but the Canadian government prefers to sign secret deals,” said Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO at Quebecor.
Broadband gets a little slice of pie
The Canadian government has also committed another small sum of money to support rural broadband activities. Just as funding in the previous budget went to support, for the most part, backbone infrastructure in remote and rural communities, Budget 2018 is looking to do more of the same.
The government noted that access to the Internet is “an essential means by which citizens and businesses access information, offer services and create opportunities,” but that this is at times a difficult proposition in rural and remote regions of the country. This means new technologies such as low earth orbit (LEO) satellites have to be explored.
To support such endeavours, Budget 2018 has committed $100 million over five years to support projects involving low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. The money will go to the Strategic Innovation Fund and will support projects “that relate to LEO satellites and next generation rural broadband.”
Canada’s Kepler Communications recently launched its first foray into LEO satellites.
Telesat Canada, which is currently developing a global constellation of 120 LEO satellites by 2021, lauded the government’s funding commitment. In a statement, the company noted that its LEO birds “will revolutionize broadband communications” by delivering cost-effective and fibre-like connectivity anywhere in the world.
This support “is an important step to help solve the rural broadband challenge in Canada,” said Dan Goldberg, president and CEO at Telesat. “In addition, we strongly concur with the government’s recognition that Canada’s world-class space industry is uniquely situated to build and operate these game changing communications networks, which would create a significant number of high tech jobs and foster meaningful innovation and economic growth here in Canada.
The company launched its first satellite earlier this year and will soon begin trials with a number of its customers around the world.
And as in every year, the federal budget had lots to say about getting broadband to rural and remote regions in Canada and was silent on launching a broadband program to assist urban low-income households which can’t afford broadband access.
