CANADA’S CULTURAL POLICY TAKES ‘BABY STEPS’.

NETFLIX $500M COMMITMENT TOOK THE SPOTLIGHT, BUT OVERALL STRATEGY THIN ON DETAILS

A half-billion dollar cash influx from

Netflix Inc. stole the show when Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly revealed a new funding regime for the cultural sector, but observers say the rest of the plot aimed at modernizing the industry for the digital age is relatively thin.

Notably missing from what was billed as an ambitious policy framework was any funding for news organizations, which have been hit hard as advertisers flock to digital platforms such as Google and Facebook. Despite intense lobbying from the news industry, Joly said the government’s approach “will not be to bail out industry models that are no longer viable.”

Joly announced new money to maintain the existing broadcast system and unveiled a patchwork of policies designed to promote Canadian content. Tougher reforms to Canadian content quotas and funding mechanisms were left to future reviews of the broadcasting, telecommunications and copyright acts.

“Creative Canada does not do the heavy lifting of shaking things up – there is no reform to the definition of Cancon, no modernization of existing funding mechanisms, and some of the tougher legislative questions are deferred for further review,” internet expert Michael Geist said.

“But Joly deserves credit for delivering a policy that rejects new taxes and regulation, keeps net neutrality intact, and still finds some new money for production and investment certainty from Netflix.”

Yet even Netflix’s promise to invest $500 million in original production in Canada over five years – the first time it will set up a production company outside the United States – may not be as ground-breaking at it seems. The company had previously told Ottawa that it contributed “hundreds of millions of dollars” in 2016 to original programming produced in Canada.