Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Country would lose at least $1.3-billion if government privatizes CBC: report

octothorp · 06-16-2011, 01:32 PM

I think the issue is much more complex than this CBC-commissioned study makes it out to be. Obviously if you simply cut the CBC off and don't replace that funding, then investment in Canadian media is going to go down. But if you privatize the CBC and invest some of that money instead into (well-designed) content development programs, what you get is a similar pool of money more equally distributed amongst the networks (and not just networks but independent content developers), you should actually see an increase in quality Canadian television.

What we have right now is an archaic attitude that the only way to protect Canadian content is through restrictions. During the last election, ACTRA announced their absolutely asinine proposal of extending current Can-con restrictions to the Internet. To me, this is backwards (not to mention unenforceable). The era of meaningful content restriction is coming to an end. The only way to really support Canadian content in the future is to help it succeed in the international (and online) media marketplace.

Current Can-con guidelines are based around air-time, so you have networks stretching a limited budget of new program funding across a large number of programs. The result is a lot of very low-budget (and usually low-quality) programs. It's a sort of scatter-shot approach that hopes that one of a large number of underfunded programs will actually become a self-sufficient success (Little Mosque is one of the few real success stories to come out of this approach). Allowing more freedom for networks to allocate funding could result in a smaller number of better-funded programs that are more likely to become self-sufficient and syndicated, and would have a better impact of keeping the top-end Canadian talent in Canada.

I'd also support seeing a model that made more of an emphasis on investment-style funding programs; if Canadian taxpayers fund a program and it turns out to be a big money-making success through advertising and syndication, then the taxpayers should at least recoup their investment. Every project should be undertaken with a goal of self-sufficiency, which certainly isn't the case with current Can-con restrictions and funding.

I also think that the funding models need to be more democratized. If a studio (even an amateur, home-grown studio) is operating outside the network infrastructure and producing good content that they're distributing online, and they can show a reasonable business model for success, then they should have equal access to funding as content creators who are getting their funding funnelled through the networks.

06-16-2011, 01:32 PM	#22
octothorp Franchise Player Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: not lurking Exp:	I think the issue is much more complex than this CBC-commissioned study makes it out to be. Obviously if you simply cut the CBC off and don't replace that funding, then investment in Canadian media is going to go down. But if you privatize the CBC and invest some of that money instead into (well-designed) content development programs, what you get is a similar pool of money more equally distributed amongst the networks (and not just networks but independent content developers), you should actually see an increase in quality Canadian television. What we have right now is an archaic attitude that the only way to protect Canadian content is through restrictions. During the last election, ACTRA announced their absolutely asinine proposal of extending current Can-con restrictions to the Internet. To me, this is backwards (not to mention unenforceable). The era of meaningful content restriction is coming to an end. The only way to really support Canadian content in the future is to help it succeed in the international (and online) media marketplace. Current Can-con guidelines are based around air-time, so you have networks stretching a limited budget of new program funding across a large number of programs. The result is a lot of very low-budget (and usually low-quality) programs. It's a sort of scatter-shot approach that hopes that one of a large number of underfunded programs will actually become a self-sufficient success (Little Mosque is one of the few real success stories to come out of this approach). Allowing more freedom for networks to allocate funding could result in a smaller number of better-funded programs that are more likely to become self-sufficient and syndicated, and would have a better impact of keeping the top-end Canadian talent in Canada. I'd also support seeing a model that made more of an emphasis on investment-style funding programs; if Canadian taxpayers fund a program and it turns out to be a big money-making success through advertising and syndication, then the taxpayers should at least recoup their investment. Every project should be undertaken with a goal of self-sufficiency, which certainly isn't the case with current Can-con restrictions and funding. I also think that the funding models need to be more democratized. If a studio (even an amateur, home-grown studio) is operating outside the network infrastructure and producing good content that they're distributing online, and they can show a reasonable business model for success, then they should have equal access to funding as content creators who are getting their funding funnelled through the networks.