By Etan Vlessing
BILL C-11 IS A POTENTIAL threat to the golden goose of Canadian creativity, YouTube’s chief business officer Robert Kyncl (above, bottom right) warned today during a panel on digital innovation at the Canadian Media Producers Association’s virtual Prime Time conference.
Kyncl told the Prime Time audience YouTube in 2020 contributed $923 million in economic benefits to Canada, and 34,000 jobs, as homegrown user-generated content generated revenues from streaming on the open Google platform that flowed back into the wider economy.
“It’s a net contributor to the country. It’s a lot of self-employment happening by amazing creative entrepreneurs creating other jobs,” he argued during the panel, which was moderated by Sangita Patel (top left), ET Canada and Home to Win host.
As Kyncl responded to a question about Bill C-11, where Ottawa is looking to modernize the Canadian broadcast system, he also pointed to the high exportability of local Canadian video content, indicating 90% of the country’s user-generated content on YouTube reaches audiences worldwide.
Kyncl cautioned against the proposed Bill C-11 legislation possibly undermining the ranks of Canadian creators sharing in YouTube’s creator economy as they drive into world markets on the Google platform’s coattails.
“Anything through the bill that would negatively impact that is simply going to hurt the creative community in Canada. And that’s not the intent of the government,” Kyncl said of the federal government’s consultation on Bill C-11, in which YouTube is taking part.
“But sometimes you pass things and then there’s unintended consequences,” he added.
As Canada increasingly depends on streamers and other new technology companies to drive future digital media growth and job gains, the Prime Time panel turned to the issue of how to encourage more global-facing digital innovation by homegrown filmmakers and artists.
This is as major U.S.-based studios and streamers and media companies like YouTube have already driven the biggest penetration into world video markets by global creators.
The Prime Time panel addressed how small- to medium-sized Canadian companies can similarly scale up internationally to increase content sales and partner with local, U.S. and other foreign producers on new projects, whether in traditional or new media.
Canadian actor, writer and filmmaker Julie Nolke (bottom left) told the digital innovations panel she has managed to make a living operating her own self-titled YouTube comedy channel.
Nolke, who has just over 1 million subscribers on YouTube, said she has parlayed her online community and the career it has built for her into acting and writing gigs in traditional Canadian media, including joining the writers room for the CBC comedy Run the Burbs.
“I now have the confidence to know what I create is good and I have something to bring to the table,” she said.
Canadian director Robert Randall (top right) has amassed 1.8 million YouTube subscribers for YAP TV, or his Young Actors Project, through which he wrote and helmed web videos like Quarantine – A Love Story and The Girl Without A Phone – A Cinderella Story.
“The gate keepers are gone. It’s cost effective. And if you can create something good, there’s an audience out there,” Randall told the digital innovations panel.
Mindful of Canadian broadcasters and indie producers looking to Bill C-11 to extract first-time investment in local content from foreign media giants operating in Canada, Kyncl argued YouTube helps the Canadian eco-system by creating a symbiotic relationship where an open, digital platform with global reach can offer a bridge for local creators back to traditional media channels and the wider economy.
“Like any brand, you build it up and expand horizontally,” he argued. “At some point you need to start hiring other people to help make all this content, because there’s only 24 hours in the day, and they have to start renting offices and studios and that’s what we call the YouTube creative ecosystem,” he said.
“And many times they work with traditional media companies, which is amazing to see that work together and co-exist – you are examples of that,” he added with a nod to his fellow panelists.
Nolke seconded that viral video success catches the eye of traditional Canadian media players as she diversifies back into linear TV on the strength of her YouTube channel success.
“You become a little more appealing when you have a bit of an audience. To producers and networks, I have eyeballs around the world that enjoy watching me,” she added of her value.
That’s just good business, argues Randall.
“If I was a development exec at a streamer or a linear channel and noticed that there was a YouTube channel with half a billion views and a huge audience and is producing scripted content on a micro budget level, yeah, I’d be curious to know what’s in there that people like so much and can it be blown up, rebooted, remade onto a traditional linear streaming platform,” he said.
A case in point is Randall’s A Girl Without a Phone series. “It’s got 250 million views. It’s just a high school show, but I made it for next to nothing with a two-person crew and it’s sitting there,” the creator said.
