Stop broadcasting giants’ online media takeover!

UPDATE: Bill C-10 is currently in front of the Senate, having cleared the House of Commons. With Parliament on summer recess since June 23rd, the Senate won’t continue its examination of C-10 until Parliament resumes in September. But should a federal election take place before then, Bill C-10 will “die”, meaning it loses its progress in the stages of becoming a law — but will likely be reintroduced from the beginning in the new session of Parliament.

Canada’s biggest media conglomerates are making a power grab to force the Internet into the restrictive model of broadcast television — and with Bill C-10, our government is backing them up.

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault claims he’s supporting Canadian creators by imposing 20th century broadcast regulations and levies onto Internet streaming services.¹ But in reality, C-10 will only further line the pockets of current broadcasting giants like Bell Media, while leaving vast numbers of Canada’s new media Internet creators out in the cold.²

Canada needs rules that uplift small creators excluded from the broadcast status quo, not a grab for even larger subsidies for the content of massive legacy media companies. But with the likes of Bell Media using Guilbeault to get what they want, we’re going to need all the help we can get to win this fight. Email your MP to send C-10 back to the drawing board NOW!

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To: MP {contact_data~firstName} {contact_data~lastName}

As your constituent, I am emailing to ask: will you speak up to stop Bill C-10’s attempt to impose outdated broadcast rules on Internet streaming?

For years, our Federal government has promised us there would be no special taxes on Netflix or other streaming services. Bill C-10 breaks that promise. It imposes special levies and content restrictions on streaming services for producing Canadian content, as part of its effort to cram those services into a 20th century broadcast framework.

There’s no CanCon crisis that justifies this; recent figures show 2019 was an all-time high for funding for traditional broadcast CanCon, and Netflix and other streaming platforms are already heavily investing in production in Canada. All C-10 will accomplish is further entrenching the power of the legacy media companies who already benefit from today’s rigid CanCon/Canada Media Fund structure, while leaving small and indie new media Canadian creators without meaningful government support.

We need our government to take supporting 21st century Canadian culture seriously, not use it as an excuse for legacy industry giveaways. So as your constituent, I ask: please commit to stand against forcing outdated broadcasting regulations on the Internet. Please support the reimagining of CanCon definitions to include all the identities and platforms of the 21st century. Please stop Bill C-10 before it harms our creators, our choice, and our Internet.

Sincerely,

{user_data~First Name} {user_data~Last Name}
{user_data~Zip}

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Should our government build support for Canadian culture on our 21st century Internet, or drag our creators backwards with outmoded 1980s era broadcast regulation?

Right now, they’re choosing to take us back to the past. C-10 takes funds from streaming platforms to give to traditional broadcasters, and imposes a still-to-be-defined set of broadcast-based rules on online platforms, tilting the scales towards the biggest players in the Canadian media market: legacy broadcasters.³ These companies have come out as C-10’s biggest cheerleaders because they know it could help kick the legs out from under new streaming media that Canadians increasingly prefer.⁴

The clear financial reality is that huge media corporations, and the traditional CanCon they largely produce, are not in crisis - the funding provided to them by the government’s Canadian Media Fund has never been higher.⁵ Meanwhile, small & indie Canadian creators that rely on new media platforms are actually struggling for funding and exposure in the global marketplace — and Bill C-10 does nothing to help them.⁶

We could do this so much better. Instead of rushing through this monopoly-reinforcing giveaway bill, Canada should start with updating our definition of what counts as ‘Canadian’ content — a definition system that was last updated in 1984! We need to make sure that our government’s cultural support is explicitly designed for our diverse multicultural identities, and explicitly recognizes and supports the huge variety of popular new online media, including podcasts and user-generated content channels, before further subsidizing legacy traditional media.

By rushing C-10 through, the only thing Guilbeault will accomplish is entrenching the power of Canada’s biggest media conglomerates — not uplifting Canadian stories and creators over the long term. But it doesn’t have to go that way. If we engage all of our representatives to turn against this bill, Minister Guilbeault will be forced to reconsider his approach, and take supporting new content creators more seriously. Email your MP: drop C-10, and design a solution that works for our creators and our Internet!

Sources

Broadcasting bill targets online streaming services - The Globe and Mail
Online creators left on the outside of broadcasting act reforms - Policy Options
The Government’s Internet Regulation Bill: Why Bill C-10 Will Mean a CRTC-Approved Netflix Service, Reduced Consumer Choice, and Less Investment in Canadian Culture - Michael Geist
@s_guilbeault on Twitter
Communications Monitoring Report 2019: Figure 4.6 - CRTC
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Press: Matthew Hatfield | Phone: +1 (888) 441-2640 ext. 1 | [email protected]