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Friday September 29, 2017

September 28, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday September 29, 2017

Netflix to commit $500M over 5 years on new Canadian productions

Internet streaming service Netflix will spend at least half a billion dollars over the next five years to fund original Canadian productions, CBC News has learned.

June 5, 2015

The funding will officially be announced tomorrow by Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly as part of a speech unveiling her vision for Canadian content and cultural industries in the digital world. It comes after months of public consultations, which were held last year.

The move could benefit both Netflix and the federal government, which has come under pressure to impose a tax on the service that could be used to fund Canadian programming.

Netflix has lobbied hard to avoid facing the kinds of requirements that traditional broadcasters in Canada have had to face for years.

Canadian broadcasters, for example, have to fulfil a quota of Canadian content they put on the air. They are also required to spend a percentage of their revenues to fund “programs of national interest” through contributions to the Canada Media Fund (CMF) — a requirement that was decreased to five per cent in a CRTC decision this past May.

Politically, the Trudeau government can now claim a victory for giving a leg up to Canadian producers without imposing a new tax on Canadians or going to battle with members of the industry to convince them to pitch in new money. (Source: CBC News)

Friday June 16, 2017

June 15, 2017 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 16, 2017

Netflix tax? Trudeau says no to MPs’ proposed broadband internet levy

February 11, 2016

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has flatly rejected a controversial recommendation from a parliamentary committee calling for a five per cent tax on broadband internet services.

The new levy, included in a majority report of the Canadian Heritage committee released Thursday, was intended to boost a media sector struggling to adapt to technological changes and evolving consumer habits.

“We respect the independence of committees and Parliament and the work and the studies they do, but allow me to be clear: We’re not raising taxes on the middle class, we’re lowering them,” he said during an event in Montreal. “We’re not going to be raising taxes on the middle class through an internet broadband tax. That is not an idea we are taking on.”

September 24, 2014

Trudeau said his Liberal government was elected on a promise to lower taxes for the middle class and raise them on the wealthiest one per cent.

The committee’s report suggested the proposal would add hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues to the Canadian Media Fund, which already receives a levy on cable bills to finance the production of Canadian content.

The tax, levied on broadband internet providers, would apply to high-speed internet services that allow for the streaming of music, movies and TV shows, but not to slower and less costly services.

Revenue generated by the current cable levy is no longer seen as sufficient in an age of cord cutting and “over-the-top” services that stream content over the internet.

The Heritage committee has spent more than a year studying the industry, which has been steadily losing advertising revenue and market shares to online giants such as Facebook, Netflix and Google. (Source: CBC News)

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Thursday February 11, 2016

February 10, 2016 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday February 11, 2016

Netflix border crackdown cuts off some customers, but unblocking services fight back

Yes, the Netflix crackdown on cross-border watching is real.

Customers worldwide have grown accustomed to sneaking over virtual walls to stream shows and movies restricted to other countries.

Now, Netflix is stopping some virtual travellers at the border, finally enforcing its age-old policy that says viewers aren’t allowed to access Netflix in other regions.

Meanwhile, unblocking companies that help virtual travellers defy the rules are fighting back. And some are already declaring victory in the battle to keep Netflix’s borders wide open.

Numerous customers with the unblocking company Unblock-Us started reporting technical problems soon after Netflix announced its crackdown on Jan. 14.

For a fee, unblocking services do the technical legwork to help customers hide their location so they can hop borders.

For example, the service would help a Netflix Canada customer watch Sons of Anarchy on Netflix U.S. The Canadian version doesn’t carry the show.

“Help,” wrote one border hopping customer on the Unblock-Us tech support site on Jan. 27, explaining that he lives in Toronto and can no longer stream content on Netflix UK.

Another customer posted, “I live in Norway and am currently using your service to watch American Netflix, but now it doesn’t work anymore.”

“Netflix blocked in Australia,” reported someone else.

Barbados-based Unblock-Us did not respond to CBC News’s request for comment. But a post on its site updated on Feb. 3 declared, “We have a solution.”

It said blocked customers need to contact the support team, which would “have some simple steps for you to follow” to resume service. (Source: CBC News)

Friday June 5, 2015

June 4, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday June 5, 2015

Canadians are ‘stealing’ U.S. Netflix content: Bell

Bell Media’s new president has a message for Canadians who hide behind virtual private networks to access video streaming services intended for U.S. subscribers, calling the practice “stealing just like stealing anything else.”

“It takes behavioral change and it is the people — friend to friend, parent to child, coworker to coworker — that set the cultural framework for acceptable and unacceptable behaviour,” Mary Ann Turcke said Wednesday in her first major speech since assuming the post in April.

“It has to become socially unacceptable to admit that you are VPNing into U.S. Netflix — like throwing garbage out your car window – you just don’t do it.”

Turcke, formerly Bell’s group president of media sales for local TV and radio, cited her 15-year-old daughter’s discovery of the additional movie and TV content of U.S. Netflix versus the Canadian version while on a ski vacation stateside.

The teenager was able to log onto the U.S. Web streaming service when back home using a U.S.-based VPN to mask her address.

While residing in something of a legal grey zone according to experts, VPNing runs contrary to the California-based giant’s terms of use and Netflix has threatened a crackdown.

“She was told she was stealing.” Turcke said. “Suffice to say there is no more VPNing.”

With an estimated one third of Netflix Canada customers accessing content meant for U.S. subscribers, she said “we need to personalize the fact that content is produced by real people, and that stealing it affects their livelihoods.”

Broadcasters including Bell Media’s CTV English-language network need the support of government and the federal regulator, she said, noting that the latter plans a summit in the fall to contemplate “illegal discoverability.” In the end, she said, “I believe it is on us.”

Not only does society not scold anyone for stealing content, Turcke added, but we feature “how to” articles in our national newspapers — educating the masses on how to get around copyright law. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Friday March 20, 2015

March 19, 2015 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 20, 2015

CRTC to require $25 ‘skinny basic’ cable package

The country’s broadcast regulator is coming out with new rules today that will require cable and satellite companies to offer customers a trimmed-down, basic channels package, sources have told The Canadian Press.

The cost of the so-called “skinny basic” package is to be capped at $25, said one source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is to announce details of its decision later today.

The ruling is the latest result from the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV hearings held in the fall.

The Harper government had pushed the regulator to allow for a so-called pick-and-pay system that would allow consumers to choose and pay only for the individual channels they want.

However, the CRTC hinted late last summer that it would be open to a pick-and-pay option built on top of a lighter mandatory service than what is currently being offered widely in the industry.

It’s not clear whether skinny basic would be an all-Canadian service that includes local stations and provincial educational channels, or a service that includes American networks as well.

Critics including the C.D. Howe Institute have warned that any proposals to mandate pick-and-pay channel choices would be an exercise in futility, in light of technological change. They say it could harm the industry and actually end up costing consumers more rather than less.

The CRTC has been criticized — and taken to court — over recent decisions from the Let’s Talk TV hearings, including a move to ban the simultaneous substitution of Canadian advertising for American commercials during the Super Bowl. (Source: Toronto Star)