Canadian content policies
In April 2016, declared the policy framework “broken model” that had become insufficient to handle current issues facing Canada’s $37B media and cultural industry (Davis, 155). Canadian Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly declared the first such review in a generation, a comprehensive review of Canadian content policies. Minister Joly had it understood “everything is on the table” The report would cover significant policies on broadcasting, telecommunications, and copyright. It would also include critical institutions in the public media, such as Canadian Broadcasting Co. In 2016 and 2017, a nationwide consultation was held featuring more than 30 000 people.
When culture legislations must consider the creation, dissemination, and usage of digital material, it is necessarily tied up with media and telecoms policies. The rise of the multinational corporate platform economy challenges Canadian and other international cultural laws, which depend on local media to achieve policy objectives. Online content allocation is rising with advances; audiovisual production shifts away from traditional broadcast news and global digital service organizations in the content distribution sector have been critical new facilitators. Hence, it has become essential to replace national cultural policy objectives and the capacity to achieve them in light of the global transformation.
All of the policy proposals on the CCPF become either in motion or in the pipeline in June 2008. Yet a controversial topic related to the so-called ‘Netflix tax’ has thrown a pall on the official answer by the CCPF, drawing emphasis on a particularly contested dimension of Canadian cultural policy: the separation of the domestic media landscape into a controlled traditional domain and an uncontrolled internet realm. Global multimedia entertainment delivery firms in the latter are excluded from foreign policy obligations and income taxes under which existing domestic media corporations are subject (Davis, 157).
This paper outline the impact of the digital technology policy in film production on cultural sovereignty. To determine how Canadian culture policy reacts to the global transition and its transformative effect on the art and culture industry in Canada, in particular the rapid rise of influential new international incumbents in content delivery. First, we summarize the current Canadian culture policy structure and the accompanying policy tools, stressing the centrality of broadcasting and film development in advancing the aims and priorities of Canadian cultural policy.
Canadian Policy Content And Transition
The Broadcasting Act specifies that the Canadian transmission structure “shall be readily adaptable to developments in science and technology.” Over time, government interventions have influenced the Canadian media system’s sensitivity to the waves of emerging communication technologies: radio, over-the-air TV, television, mobile, internet, and cellular (Armstrong, 201). The policy has ensured funding in the production and carriage of Canadian content and Canadian control of the regional communication network regardless of current network technology.
In a big bang, multinational cloud-based, multi-functional digital platform services that embrace storage, processing, databases, software, and networks have emerged very fast. Such providers of electronic information services appear to be “tech companies that have morphed into media, like Google or Apple, or… hybrid ‘tech-media’ firms like Netflix or Amazon” (Noam, 686). Service providers delivering content will draw subscribers from domestic channels, cable, and satellite networks based on functions for quality, preference, convenience, and personalized playlist.
Competition with them is only feasible, with a specific community of linked operations—a concept which the national telecommunications broadcasters can not easily replicate. Lately, the functional importance of the change to network control comes to light. By market capitalization, Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Netflix, and Twitter are among the world’s top ten most profitable businesses. Google and Facebook already catch an unprecedented 72 percent of the Internet 6$4.2B a year (Winseck, 137).
It is estimated that there will be more subscribers to OTT networks in Canada by 2020 than television subscribers. While hundreds of OTT streaming services have emerged worldwide, the majority are local, marginal, or niche players. Netflix’s growth has proven that a broad distribution presence and a library of quality original content are vital ingredients of commercial success, contributing to pressure from major distributors such as Along Disney, Twitter, Apple, CBS, and Twitter, Amazon, DAZN, Hulu, and Netflix. For Canadian networks, competition for original premium programming is anticipated to push up the price of Canadian display rights (McCaughey, 110).