Canada’s TV networks see Bill C-11 as lifeline, it’s not the solution

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Invoice C-11, that monstrosity of an try by the Trudeau Liberals to manage the net world, acquired assist from a few of Canada’s greatest broadcasters this week.

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I’ve no time for this invoice, which may utterly alter the best way we create and eat content material on-line on this nation in methods which can be just for the worst. However I perceive the place the broadcasters are coming from.

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Troy Reeb, of Corus Leisure, and Pierre Karl Peladeau, of Quebecor, each appeared earlier than the Senate Transportation and Communications committee. Their message was simple, if now we have to be regulated then foreign-based competitors ought to face the identical laws.

“The largest TV networks in Canada day after day are now not Canadian. In any respect. They’re unregulated overseas streamers,” Reeb instructed the committee.

It’s a compelling argument from the broadcasters, they merely desire a stage enjoying discipline.

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Conventional broadcasters on this nation are topic to the laws of the CRTC and don’t have any finish of compliance phrases to be able to hold their licenses. They function in a system that was designed when TV was king, when revenues flooded the system, which they now not do.

But conventional broadcasters are nonetheless instructed how a lot unique Canadian content material they need to produce and broadcast every week. They’re mandated to assist unbiased manufacturing firms within the creation of Canadian content material. They’re typically instructed what sort of Canadian content material should be produced, when it ought to air and even how a lot of their revenues must go in direction of these initiatives.

None of those phrases apply to Netflix, Prime or Disney+ or the opposite overseas streaming companies. But these firms are capable of do an unbelievable quantity of enterprise on this nation.

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“The identical U.S. studios who used to license as content material for Canadian tv at the moment are going round Canadian broadcasters to take it on to Canadians themselves,” Reeb mentioned.

Comprehensible however fallacious

Given this situation, it’s comprehensible why Reeb and Peladeau, together with different broadcast executives, would present assist for Bill C-11. No matter different flaws the invoice might have, and there are various, they see it as a strategy to have their competitors comply with the identical guidelines they’re required to comply with.

My most well-liked answer, and sure the popular answer of Reeb and Peladeau if you happen to caught them in a quiet second, could be for the CRTC to impose fewer restrictions on conventional broadcasters. That’s to not say no restrictions in any respect however it will imply fewer hoops to leap via to be able to ship content material Canadians need to watch.

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But no authorities, Liberal or Conservative, has been prepared to do that during the last a number of a long time. The truth is, the Trudeau authorities has continued to impose extra licence necessities on conventional broadcasting.

I see the place the normal broadcasters are coming from, I perceive that they need a stage enjoying discipline. However C-11 will do rather more than that. It should give the already extremely highly effective CRTC the power to manage the music you hear on streaming companies, the podcasts you hearken to on Spotify, the audio books you hearken to on Audible or the movies you see on YouTube.

It has the power, because it now stands, to impose necessities designed for giant broadcasters on small creators who’ve carved out a distinct segment that enables them to earn a residing or some additional earnings.

Corus, which owns World, and Quebecor, which owns TVA, need the invoice handed they usually need it handed shortly. Every day they’re dropping viewers and income as they sit below these laws that don’t apply to the overseas streamers.

Invoice C-11 isn’t the reply, it shouldn’t be handed, however when the prospect of the Trudeau Liberals reducing laws for all is slim to none, I can see why broadcast executives will take what they will get.

blilley@postmedia.com