By Etan Vlessing
OTTAWA – As Canada hopes to modernize its broadcasting laws via Bill C-10, CBC/Radio-Canada president and CEO Catherine Tait (right) and CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin (left) on Tuesday debated how best to steer U.S. streaming dollars to Canadian content production without forcing local indie producers to give up their intellectual property rights – and Canada its cultural sovereignty.
And the solution both industry execs agreed on after touching on Hollywood scenarios involving France, Lionsgate founder Frank Giustra and I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel standing up to Netflix was for the Canadian TV industry to find its backbone.
“I agree with the CMPA on this issue – cultural output should not be held by others, they should be held by Canadians,” Tait argued on the issue of Canadian IP ownership. At the same time, she accepted that Hollywood studios had long seen fit to grab all rights, “and Netflix has become the next version of that.”
In the face of that dominance, Tait offered a full-throated defence of cultural property as regards Canadian content and its retention by local creators.
“We really need to think about ownership in this country… I feel very strongly that if you want to have that sovereignty over our own future and future generations, you need to make sure that your intellectual property rests not entirely – it’s not to say there won’t be a lively service production industry… but it’s a different exercise,” Tait insisted.
And when it came to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Studios, Tait argued the Canadian industry needs to “educate” foreign digital players on how to do business in Canada in a way that ensured the country and its content creators retained their cultural sovereignty. “I think it behooves us as producers – and us includes broadcasters – to spend the time to talk about what it is to do business in Canada,” she argued.
That gallantry expressed during the virtual Prime Time session was notable as it came in the face of increasing calls by the CBC and private Canadian broadcasters for indie producers to chase foreign production coin to fill out budgets for homegrown TV shows. Tait underlined that industry trend as she pointed to a host of CBC series done with American partners, like the Enslaved event documentary with Epix, Porter with BET and Sort Of with HBO Max.
“We’re really looking for partnerships… We can do more if we have more people at the table.” – Catherine Tait, CBC
“We’re really looking for partnerships… We can do more if we have more people at the table,” she said as the CBC looks for a bigger bang for its investment dollars and greater audience reach and creative ambition for its series.
But how to collaborate – when Canadians get around the table with American studios and streamers and other foreign players – became the focus of the fireside chat.
Mastin lamented Canada has long considered by Hollywood studios and streamers as an extension of the North American market they dominate, and a market in which they should be able to operate unhindered. He pointed to France as a model for Canada as that culturally-sensitive European country had rejected that colonial model in its relations with Hollywood, while Canada, astride the U.S. market, had yet to shake that off.
“They (France) learned a long time ago that you can’t take that highway-or-my-way approach,” Mastin argued. For the Canadian industry to kick into action, sometimes a fellow Canadian entertainment exec facing down a foe is required, as Tait pointed to Lionsgate founder Frank Giustra bringing a lawsuit against Twitter for “false and defamatory” tweets that the U.S. social media platform published and neglected or refused to take down, despite his repeated requests.
“Now Twitter operates from the United States in our country. And if you tell Twitter to take content down, they have a fair use policy determined in their own jurisdiction and they are ruled by their own jurisdiction,” Tait argued.
She reiterated the Canadian industry had to pivot to a regulatory and legal regime where foreign players active in Canada respected this country’s jurisdiction. “Period, everything, across the board,” Tait added.
“Yes, absolutely, and we can do that,” Mastin chimed in as he urged Canada to “stand up” and assert its own rules and laws over foreign players in the Canadian market.
“Easier said than done,” Tait then added with a note of realism.
But even as she insisted CBC’s streamer Gem doesn’t compete with Netflix, due to its lack of scale and production dollars, Tait said too many indie producers saw it as a rival, and with deep pockets it might tap for a license fee.
Only adding to Tait’s frustration is the reality that Canadian producers of a potentially dark and steamy drama likely to appeal to a Netflix or Amazon audience weren’t going to find a home for their show on CBC’s conventional TV platform – or on Gem for a lack of production dollars – unless the CBC turned to a U.S. streamer as a production partner.
And for that to happen, the CBC needs “flexibility” from the CRTC on its priority programming obligations to steer prestige serialized dramas to Gem, the pubcaster’s streaming service. The CBC was before the CRTC last month asking for the flexibility to count its expenditures on original dramas and comedies which might stream only on Gem towards satisfying its programs of national interest (PNI) conditions of licence.
As an example of challenging TV material her pubcaster would like to do, Tait pointed to a non-CBC series, Michaela Coel’s drama I May Destroy You for HBO and BBC One. She praised Coel’s creation as an “unbelievable show about really challenging material” from a powerful Black woman as a producer.
Mastin agreed with Tait and recalled Coel rejecting an initial lucrative offer from Netflix to go with the BBC over creative and commercial differences. “She was going to do the show with Netflix and Netflix basically said, great, but we want to control everything. And there was some back and forth and she stood her ground and ultimately, she left and shopped it elsewhere, which you have to hugely respect her for doing,” Mastin said.
“And it shows you can stand up for what is right for you and actually make it work and be astoundingly and astronomically successful, as she (Coel) has been,” he added.
Recalling the marathon 14-day CRTC licence renewal hearing, Tait expressed surprise, “and even disappointment” that industry players who probed the licence application hadn’t fully understood the pubcaster’s future strategy and ambitions. “I take responsibility for that as we haven’t been effective in communicating what we’re trying to do,” she said, insisting the CBC is looking to move ahead in the digital age, and not back to the past.
“What was worrisome in this hearing is how many of our stakeholders are having trouble, grasping, or embracing or accepting that that has happened,” she added as the CBC looks to be a 21st century digital media company.
