The Liberals have walked into a bit of a trap on this one. Streaming services are getting more expensive everywhere, with less new content as the golden age of streaming comes to an end with the end of the “free money” from a long stretch of low interest rates. It’s going to be worse here because of new regulations, and some streaming services may simply walk away. Canadians are going to notice that and resent it, and blame the Liberals. The Liberals will squawk and dissemble that’s it’s really broader trends at play, not really their fault. However, just like inflation, they certainly will have played some part in the problem with their policies and they were in charge when it happened.
TV and movie production was in an unprecedented boom for the past decade because of the rush to build the online streaming services and fill them with content. That’s all come to a screeching halt as interest rates were increased to respond to inflation, and the already dubious economics of the streaming business faced a reckoning with sharply increased borrowing costs for production. The coming downturn in Canadian production needs to be evaluated in that context, but I have little doubt in the ability of the Canadian government to make it worse.
The problem with the CanCon model remains that it doesn’t seem to produce content that Canadians actually want to watch. The old problems with low production values have been addressed with big budgets, and there’s less of the mediocre acting characteristic of a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s CBC and CTV shows. The politically mandated “Canadian” plots and themes have gotten even worse and less appealing to a mass audience with the injection of intersectional theory in everything. Efforts to bring the stories of an unrepresented 1-3% of the population to the screen keeps failing to turn those into stories that can engage even 10% of the audience, let alone everybody. You only have to flip through foreign offerings on streaming services find interesting shows from other countries and cultures and show it can be done, but 70 years of the Canadian bureaucratic approach hasn’t worked.
Canada has been suffering under the CRTC since 1958 when it replaced the Board of Broadcast Governors. Interestingly, 1958 was the year Canadians were burdened with the first Trudeau and Liberal meddling began. It continues today. I began my broadcast career six years later with CBC Vancouver and, eventually, experienced firsthand the ennui that still afflicts the CRTC when I moved to private broadcasting and began applying for CRTC licenses. By the early seventies the CRTC had involved itself in so many issues, Canadian Content for instance (CanCon) that it could take three years to get a decision on a new broadcast license. CanCon legislated that Canadian radio stations had to provide 30% of their music from Canadian artists and thus the misguided interference of uneducated politicians began. Anyone who suggests that there is no political interference in CRTC actions is naive.
Michael, my memory is that T1 was first elected to Parliament in 1965 so, when you say that "1958 was the year Canadians were burdened with the first Trudeau" do you mean "1968" when he was elected Liberal leader?
This may end like Facebook where streamers decide we aren't worth it and in a truly dystopian implementation we will all be forced to watch can con provided by CBC, the only provider of can con today that for the most part nobody chooses to watch today. Additionally, the CRTC will have to decide what is can con really? Will it be like our affirmative hiring where we will need to have programming provided by streamers in amounts that reflect the percentage of population for each distinct culture/gender/race here?
Maybe, just maybe, the CRTC is clued in to the real world and realizes that by next fall the Conservatives will be in power so why waste time preparing policies and regulations that will only end up in the shredder.
The Liberals have walked into a bit of a trap on this one. Streaming services are getting more expensive everywhere, with less new content as the golden age of streaming comes to an end with the end of the “free money” from a long stretch of low interest rates. It’s going to be worse here because of new regulations, and some streaming services may simply walk away. Canadians are going to notice that and resent it, and blame the Liberals. The Liberals will squawk and dissemble that’s it’s really broader trends at play, not really their fault. However, just like inflation, they certainly will have played some part in the problem with their policies and they were in charge when it happened.
TV and movie production was in an unprecedented boom for the past decade because of the rush to build the online streaming services and fill them with content. That’s all come to a screeching halt as interest rates were increased to respond to inflation, and the already dubious economics of the streaming business faced a reckoning with sharply increased borrowing costs for production. The coming downturn in Canadian production needs to be evaluated in that context, but I have little doubt in the ability of the Canadian government to make it worse.
The problem with the CanCon model remains that it doesn’t seem to produce content that Canadians actually want to watch. The old problems with low production values have been addressed with big budgets, and there’s less of the mediocre acting characteristic of a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s CBC and CTV shows. The politically mandated “Canadian” plots and themes have gotten even worse and less appealing to a mass audience with the injection of intersectional theory in everything. Efforts to bring the stories of an unrepresented 1-3% of the population to the screen keeps failing to turn those into stories that can engage even 10% of the audience, let alone everybody. You only have to flip through foreign offerings on streaming services find interesting shows from other countries and cultures and show it can be done, but 70 years of the Canadian bureaucratic approach hasn’t worked.
Bingo! “Actually want to watch.” The CRTC is a dinosaur gasping for air, as are the Liberals. VPN all the way.
Hardly surprising. This government seems to be the champion of finding solutions for problems that exist only in their cloistered little minds.
Maybe it’s time to dump the CRTC.
Canada has been suffering under the CRTC since 1958 when it replaced the Board of Broadcast Governors. Interestingly, 1958 was the year Canadians were burdened with the first Trudeau and Liberal meddling began. It continues today. I began my broadcast career six years later with CBC Vancouver and, eventually, experienced firsthand the ennui that still afflicts the CRTC when I moved to private broadcasting and began applying for CRTC licenses. By the early seventies the CRTC had involved itself in so many issues, Canadian Content for instance (CanCon) that it could take three years to get a decision on a new broadcast license. CanCon legislated that Canadian radio stations had to provide 30% of their music from Canadian artists and thus the misguided interference of uneducated politicians began. Anyone who suggests that there is no political interference in CRTC actions is naive.
Ummmm ......
Michael, my memory is that T1 was first elected to Parliament in 1965 so, when you say that "1958 was the year Canadians were burdened with the first Trudeau" do you mean "1968" when he was elected Liberal leader?
This may end like Facebook where streamers decide we aren't worth it and in a truly dystopian implementation we will all be forced to watch can con provided by CBC, the only provider of can con today that for the most part nobody chooses to watch today. Additionally, the CRTC will have to decide what is can con really? Will it be like our affirmative hiring where we will need to have programming provided by streamers in amounts that reflect the percentage of population for each distinct culture/gender/race here?
Dystopian indeed. Like Russia, you will watch what we say you can, and you will like it, Comrade.
Thank you, Peter Menzies. Well done.
Ah well, can always go back to bittorrent
Thanks Peter Menzies for again proving that the acronym SNAFU continues to apply to this Liberal Government>
Maybe, just maybe, the CRTC is clued in to the real world and realizes that by next fall the Conservatives will be in power so why waste time preparing policies and regulations that will only end up in the shredder.
Not a serious country.
How tough would it be to get PP to add 'abolish the CRTC' to his CPC election platform?
Radically open up Canadian content! Stop making an appointed commission the gatekeeper!