July 20, 2024
It’s possible that readers of this space have figured out that I start my day with the Globe and Mail. The print edition home delivered, thank you very much.
That’s for many reasons, including the beat reporters who do such a good job covering media policy (a shout out for Marie Woolf and prior to her Alexandra Posadzki and James Bradshaw). It amazes me they can get a handle on complex regulatory issues as adroitly as they do. Journalists, like lawyers, are quick studies (but paid so much less).
The Globe’s Editorial Board, now that’s a different story.
In response to the CRTC’s $200 million Canadian content levy on foreign streamers last month, the Globe advocated for the full deregulation of Canadian broadcasting. Instead, financial aid for Canadian drama programming, musician development and local news currently tithed from major Canadian broadcasters and US streamers would be replaced by federal subsidies created by…. defunding English language CBC television.
As you can see, it’s a meaty editorial. And well salted. The beneficiaries of Canadian content tithes are snidely identified by the billionaire-backed Globe and Mail as “assorted worthy groups.” Yes, those would be independent Canadian television producers, Canadian bands, small market radio stations, and independent television stations broadcasting in small and mid-sized cities.
Then there are the factual errors: “Netflix already spends substantial sums on Canadian content,” says the Globe. They do? Name a figure. Name some Canadian originals Netflix made. Somebody’s been reading off of the Hollywood Motion Picture Association’s lobby notes.
More cogently, the editorial argues that broadcasters’ and streamers’ ability-to-pay the regulatory cross-subsidies of key cultural and news content identified in the Broadcasting Act is not what it once was and that burden ought to be shifted from media companies and their customers to governments and their taxpayers.
The editorial reads very much like an opinion column or six you might have read under the byline of Andrew Coyne, the Globe’s libertarian-in-residence. I’m tempted to rebut further in the interest of perspective and context, but I already did.
By coincidence, this week MediaPolicy published two posts which bear upon the issues raised in the Globe editorial. The first is my argument that the Online Streaming Act, which updates the Broadcasting Act for the Internet era, rests on consensus liberal values shared by most Canadians. So perhaps we can stop carrying on like it’s a winner-take-all culture war to be fought between ideological hostiles.
The second post offers some thoughts on a recent opinion poll on news funding, commissioned by the conservative opinion website The Hub. My conclusion is the same: there is more we agree upon than disagree on Canada’s media policy. Let’s take the heated debate down a notch.
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It’s a grim summer at Corus Entertainment. Six weeks from now the banks can invoke loan conditions that would seem to require immediate debt pay downs. The company is planning hundreds of new layoffs, including staff at its 15-city Global News television network.
The new co-CEO Troy Reeb is trying to buck up shareholder and employee morale by saying that Corus can replace the profitable lifestyle television programming it just lost to Rogers with new US shows and that Corus still has a vibrant schedule of Canadian shows for Canadian audiences.
Unifor National President Lana Payne, a former journalist, issued a statement in which she said “the media sector is under extreme threat, and we are at a critical juncture where we need life-saving intervention, including a plan from every single political party in Canada, to save local news. We would expect this necessary plan to receive all party support so that media workers can see this country supports fact-based journalism and democracy.”
Unifor represents Global TV employees across the country.
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Last week MediaPolicy updated you on Paramount’s sale to Skydance Media.
There’s more activity in Hollywood this week. Netflix issued a positive quarterly report, solidifying its position as the runaway industry leader.
Elsewhere, debt-burdened Warner Brothers Discovery is reported to be considering splitting the company in half, but not into its pre-merger constituent parts. Instead, the reshuffle would cut loose studio production and the Max streaming platform, debt-free from the struggling cable business.
The folks at Corus may recognize the strategy.
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If you have a taste for digging deeper into music streaming and CRTC regulation, there’s a Michael Geist podcast with guest Will Page you should listen to. MediaPolicy has posted before about Page, Spotify’s former chief economist and current proxy spokesperson. He’s got some definite opinions, specifically he is opposed to any and all regulation of music streaming and he wants to tell you why.
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Good, feisty, but civil, public debate is a scarce thing. Thanks for supplying it. Loved “it’s a meaty editorial. And well salted.” Cheers, Tim
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