Author Archives: Kelly Lynne Ashton

About Kelly Lynne Ashton

Over twenty years of experience on the business side of Canadian film, television and digital media. After years of working as an entertainment lawyer both inhouse in several of Canada's top television production companies and with my own practice representing producers, talent and broadcasters, switched to the production of children's digital media. When it was time for something new, moved back to business affairs but now in film, television and digital media. More recently I discovered that all along my true calling was as a Canadian media policy wonk. Now assisting clients with research projects, policy and strategy development, government and government agency submissions and Diversity and Inclusion consulting.

CRTC’s GLR Decision

1 Reply

I gave a fairly polite run down of the Group Licence Renewal decision over at TV, Eh!  Here I want to focus on one particularly wonky part of the decision – data reporting – and why it matters.

For their GLR submissions, the CMPA, ACTRA, DGC and WGC commissioned Mario Mota of Boon Dog Professional Services to review the annual reports of the broadcasters and the applications and assess how the broadcasters had met their CPE and PNI CPE obligations and what it would mean for Canadian programming in general and PNI in particular if the broadcasters were granted their requested changes.  Mario did the best that he could but was stymied by inconsistent and inaccurate reporting.  The CRTC requires the reports but doesn’t review them.

The GLR decision includes requirements for more detailed reporting on a number of categories including original programming, Indigenous programming, Official Language Minority Community programming and women in key creative roles.  There will also be information bulletins to help broadcasters fill out the forms correctly.  There was no mention of a review or compliance regime.

The question, and why this matters, is will these new reporting requirements make it easier for stakeholders to assess broadcasters performance in spending money on and broadcasting Canadian programming?  As long as there is no review process the answer is no.  It looks like broadcasters will still be able to fill out (or not fill out with sections left intentionally blank) the forms any way they want.  When it comes time to review broadcaster performance again in four years and compare it to their promises, the independent production sector may still be doing it with one hand tied behind their back.

That leads me to ask: does the current Commission appreciate the role of the independent production sector in public hearings?  This I wonder.

The independent production sector pointed out that the broadcasters proposals on PNI CPE would allow them to spend less money on PNI.  That was dismissed.  The independent production sector argued that the definition of independent production was being eroded by broadcaster behaviour and as the need for an independent production sector is enshrined in the Broadcasting Act it needed to be protected.  That was ignored.  It pointed out that exhibition requirements in prime time are still relevant as that is still when most people watch television.  That was ignored.  It argued for some kind of protection for children’s programming since Corus is the major children’s broadcaster in Canada but with the removal of genre protection it can walk away at any time.  It argued variously for protections for Canadian feature film, documentaries, development and ensuring that CPE is spent on original programming.

None of these issues were mentioned.  Not reviewed and dismissed.  Nothing.  It comes across as if the Commission thinks that it has all the necessary information and does not need to hear the perspectives of those who create the content that is broadcast.  If this was true, it would undermine the public hearing process where all stakeholders have the opportunity to present evidence.  It is the independent production sector’s job to provide a different perspective than the broadcasters, based on different priorities.  It is the Commission’s job to weigh those different priorities and make decisions based on the public interest as defined in the Broadcasting Act.

I know that the Commission understand what its job is, but by not ensuring that the independent production sector has the tools that they need to do their job well (i.e. the data) and ignoring many of their concerns, it appears as if the Commission has taken sides.  It feels like engaging with the Commission at a public hearing is as useful as hitting your head against a wall.  After a while it hurts too much and you just stop.

Advertisement

The CRTC’s Differential Pricing Practice Decision – for us content people

Leave a reply

I posted the following over on TV, Eh!’s Wonk Report today:

Over here on the content side of things most of us are not familiar with phrases such as ‘zero rating’ and ‘differential pricing practices’ so might tune out of a CRTC decision titled “Framework for Assessing the Differential Pricing Practices of Internet Service Providers” but we shouldn’t.  Net neutrality is an increasingly important concept for content creators.

Let’s go through a few definitions first.

Net neutrality is the principle that all data on the Internet should be treated the same.  It costs the same to the user, it is regulated (or not) the same and it is delivered the same (i.e. no throttling of certain kinds of data).  So the video or the game that you create is not treated any differently from email or music or apps etc.

Differential pricing is the practice of offering the same content or services to consumers at different prices.  Examples are:

Zero rating:  the practice of not charging consumers for certain kinds of data.  That could be sports or all video or gaming.  That data would then not be counted towards the consumers data cap and would make that service more competitive.

Sponsored data:  an application provider arranges with an ISP to discount the data associated with its app.

The CRTC’s decision is to disallow these differential pricing practices (and any others that arise, based on a framework that has been developed to assess the practices) in order to maintain net neutrality.

In practical terms this means that immediately Vidéotron’s Unlimited Music Service, which excluded the data used by that music streaming service from certain mobile plans, was offside.  What it means for content creators is that ISPs cannot distinguish themselves on the basis of what content they have to offer – no exclusive access or zero-rated access to Netflix, or CraveTV or gaming.  No fast lane for CanCon (an idea that has been floated from time to time).   They can compete on price and speed and size of the data caps but not content.  Look at this quote from the decision:

“The Commission considers that any short-term benefits of differential pricing practices would be greatly outweighed by the negative long-term impacts on consumer choice if ISPs were to act as gatekeepers of content through their use of such practices.”

Gatekeepers.  Does that sound familiar?  This is why the decision should be of interest to content creators, particularly those who are moving away from broadcasters as gatekeepers to offer their content directly to consumers.  The Differential Pricing Practices decision means that you will not be moving from broadcaster to ISP as gatekeeper.  For digital content creators it means that the ISP cannot insert itself between you and your audience.

 

 

The Diversity Issue – Are We Doing Enough?

Leave a reply

Are we doing enough on diversity in Canadian film, television and digital media?  OK, we all know that the answer is no because you can look around any production office or an industry event and see that it is not reflective of the audience that the industry is trying to entertain. In other industries there are stats that demonstrate that diverse boards or diverse employees result in higher revenues and larger market penetration.  This is likely true for the screen-based industries too but since our purpose is entertainment we have to also ask ourselves how can we reach audiences with our stories when we don’t reflect those audiences?

What is the actual extent of the non-diversity of our Canadian screen-based industries?  That’s hard to say because there are no stats that can answer that question.  There is no agreement even on how to define diversity.  Is it a set of checkboxes pulled from the Employment Equity Act or the broader Charter of Rights or a way of looking at employees and talent to ensure that you are pulling from the largest possible talent pool to get the most creative talent (yeah, I think it’s the latter).

Broadcasters have to track women, visible minorities, disabled and indigenous employees under employment equity legislation and CRTC requirements.  Think about the categories that legislation leaves out though like sexual orientation or identity, marital status, religion, age, country of origin, economic status, neurological differences and more.  There is no requirement by anyone to track the employees at production companies or on sets.  Women in View has published studies of the number of women in key creative positions in film, television and web series but those studies are not a comprehensive look at all job categories nor do they look at other forms of diversity.   Lights, Camera, Access! commissioned a report on employment patterns for people with disabilities in the screen-based industries, but again it was a snapshot of the problem rather than a comprehensive statistical analysis.

If we do not know the full extent of the problem then it will be impossible to measure progress.  In the absence of stats, but recognizing that something has to be done, Telefilm, CMF and others are now factoring gender parity into their evaluation process.  Why are they focused on gender parity rather than full diversity?  My theory is that it is significantly easier to measure the existing gender balance and any improvements and it is easier to put in place measures to improve that balance, than to do the same for any other underserved groups.  One of the greatest obstacles to measuring diversity is the reluctance of marginalized people to self-identify for fear that the identification will be used against them.  With a few exceptions, it is relatively easy to identify gender even if people do not wish to self-identify.

Will a focus on gender parity naturally lead to greater diversity?  I have heard this argument made on more than one occasion and I can’t follow it.  More women means more women.  Even worse, without systemic change it is likely that those additional women will all be white, straight, able-bodied etc. women.

Any systemic change will be more difficult to enact and will take more than a new line on an evaluation form.  We need to ask ourselves how we are recruiting talent, where we are looking, are our job descriptions reflecting bias, do we even understand our own biases.  We need to educate leaders, managers who do the hiring and even funders on what diversity and inclusion means.

In my opinion it is never a bad thing to try to make a difference so I do applaud everyone who is trying, even if it is only to impact the gender balance.  I just ask that we keep working on this problem.  Let’s get the stats we need.  Let’s train more people on diversity and inclusion.  Let’s figure out where to best put our efforts to create long lasting change.  As screenwriter Denis McGrath had been known to say, and put on a button, ‘Best Idea Wins’, but the industry needs to be more inclusive and reflective of our audience if it is going to have the best pool of ideas to pick from.

[At Denis McGrath’s Celebration of Life today, Mark Ellis reminded me that I had promised Denis that I would blog more.  So, after wiping away the tears, I started planning this post.  This is my oh so small effort to ensure that his impact will be long lasting.]

Best Idea Wins button

Prime Time in Ottawa 2017

Leave a reply

For a blow by blow feel for this year’s Prime Time in Ottawa, check out my Storify of the top tweets.  Yes, a lot of them were from me, Cynthia Lynch and Marcia Douglas but not out of favouritism on behalf of fellow wonks but we three do tend to be the most consistent tweeters at a conference.

Here’s a little overview thought on the conference.

No matter what the programming is, Prime Time in Ottawa is still a must attend event for the networking if you’re in the business of film and television or are a digital media producer who works with film and television producers.  There are official and unofficial networking events, meetings, coffees, lunches and serendipity.  Both mornings I sat myself at a back table so that I would not distract people with the bright light of my laptop screen during sessions.  Random people sat down at my table and I had the most interesting conversations.  I highly recommend it rather than travelling in a pod of co-workers.

As for the programming, there was a good mix of traditional panels (Exports, Selling to the U.S., Merchandising and Licensing) and more current panels (Financing Digital First Production, Mobile Rising, VR).  The IdeaBlast’s were all technology related and some of them were quite interesting.   I particularly enjoyed Kevin Keane of Brainsights, a company that measures brain activity in response to advertising and entertainment programming.  He had some fascinating insights to offer on how different demographics react to content themes and why.

There were recurring themes from the panels.  There wasn’t a big difference between the Mobile Rising panel and the Digital First panel so they did bring up a number of the same issues.  What was interesting was when those same issues were echoed in other panels.  Things to keep in mind:

  • Think about the content that you want to create and then decide the length that you need for it and the platform(s) where it can find its audience.
  • Understand your audience. Research, research, research.  This is relevant for all audiences whether through Canadian broadcasters, digital platforms, U.S. services or international buyers.  It even came up in the Merchandising and Licensing panel.
  • Be flexible and learn to pivot quickly as new audiences and new platforms come out of nowhere with little warning. One key piece of advice was to get good at all the platforms because you can’t know which ones will be the most successful at any given time.  The VR panel talked about developing skills in VR storytelling now so that you will be ready when the market takes off.

Now, if you’re a policy wonk you may be interested in these themes:

  • The need to do something to create gender balance in production, provided it doesn’t just help white women.
  • What can we or should we be doing to help reconciliation with Canada’s indigenous peoples. Reynolds Mastin, CEO of the CMPA suggested an Indigenous Film Office and Jesse Wente suggested that we as an industry need to help indigenous people tell their own stories (which I think means being more active than just funding an Indigenous Film Office).
  • And of course the recurring (and will keep recurring until a solution is found for the growing shortfall from the regulated system) call to require all the participants in the broadcasting eco-system to contribute to the creation of Canadian programming (i.e. OTT and ISPs too).

In all, I would say that the vibe was hopeful.  Some years it has been downright suicidal but I think more producers are experimenting with new content forms, distribution methods and business models and finding some success.  There is a lot of production and a lot of great Canadian programming on TV, at least right now.

So, another successful Prime Time in Ottawa.  Next year will be January 31 – Feb 2, 2018.

Why Do I Do What I Do

Leave a reply

I know, I’m a little behind in my blogging.  I wrote up a little summary of some of the highlights of the Group Licence Renewal hearing for TV, Eh!.  I thought long and hard about saying a bit more about my personal reaction to the hearing and decided that yes, some things deserve to be said, over here on my own blog.

I feel that I play a role in media policy discourse.  It is a role that has not existed in the past and some players in this world may not understand it.  Here’s what I think it is.  Media policy, whether it is from the CRTC, Heritage, provincial agencies or other policy makers, can be a dense, convoluted world full of laws, policies, rules, regulations and acronyms that need to be translated and decoded.  This byzantine world affects each and every member of the independent production community.  It also affects everyone working at the broadcasters and BDUs but I have spent my entire career on the production side of the industry and that is my perspective.

I know that while many in the independent production community know that media policy affects them, and quite a few try to follow it and understand it, very few actually have the time to read decisions, listen to hearings and put it all into the necessary context.  That’s what I do.  I translate, decode and put it into context.  I started doing this as an employee of the Writers Guild of Canada as a service to its members.  I continued after leaving because, well, I enjoy it and it forces me to stay up to date so that I can offer my clients the best service possible.  You guys benefit.

Am I a reporter?  No.  I make no attempt to provide even-handed coverage but to share the things that I think other people in the independent production community would find interesting.  I comment on what I see and read so the most appropriate analogy in mainstream media is columnist.  Each tweet or blog post is an opinion piece meant to inform and enlighten and maybe even amuse a little bit.

I also write submissions for clients, under their names.  When I think my clients might impact my blogging I will disclose it (see my CIPF – Digital Media post) but I am not a spokesperson for them.  I try very hard to amplify the message without bias while acknowledging that as a human being I do have biases.  I do not see myself as sitting on the sidelines but as an active participant in the process ensuring that there is a wider audience and greater participation by those impacted by media policy deliberations and decisions.

You guys keep telling me you like it so I will continue.

The CIPFs and Digital Media

1 Reply

In my last post I went over the ‘permissions’ and ‘requirements’ of the CRTC’s new regulatory framework for Certified Independent Production Funds (“CIPFs”).  Since then you have heard a lot about the decision to reduce eligibility for Canadian productions from 8 points to 6 points. However, there is another issue that has been quietly bubbling away and now is generating a great deal of concern.

First, a little context.  In CRTC 2010-833, the CRTC amended the existing regulatory framework for CIPFs to formally allow CIPFs to fund digital media associated with television programming and to allow funding of standalone digital media provided that it was limited by a cap of 10% of the revenues received by a CIPF from a BDU.

“the Commission is of the view that there is little cause for concern over permitting the funding of new media projects linked to television programs as any new media content created as a result of such funding would still serve to support traditional television production. The Commission also concludes that the existence of a link to a television program will create a self-limiting process in that the producers and broadcasters will want to ensure that sufficient amounts remain for television production and development and will therefore make decisions in their own best interest. It will also be at the discretion of the funds whether they choose to fund program-related new media projects. As such, the Commission considers that a cap on such new media projects is not necessary.” [para 17]

So it was very confusing to read the new framework and see the phrase “the Commission will maintain a 10% limit on funding that can be allocated to non-programming digital content” [para 45] when there had been no cap on associated ‘new media’ to maintain.  Now, the definitions have been updated so that digital no longer includes digital-first linear video, but the result of the new wording is that all other digital media associated with a television program is now limited to 10% of BDU revenues.

Given the seriousness of this change, various organizations have been in touch with the CRTC to confirm that indeed this interpretation is correct. The potential consequence is significant as it would mean that most of the CIPF funding for digital media that both digital media and television producers have relied on will have to be re-allocated to  only television programming.  At a time when digital media is an essential element in discoverability this is a puzzling development.  Affiliated digital media drives audiences to the television, extends their experience with the television program and the broadcaster, builds both brands, and helps to sell the television show internationally.  Digital media can help documentaries extend their reach and their impact.  In some genres, most notably children’s, international buyers rarely license the television program unless there is associated digital media.

A few years ago I authored a study on co-production opportunities in digital media and in that study I learned that few countries around the world have any funding for digital media associated with television programming.  With the funding that we have, Canadians have become leaders in the field and are sought after for co-productions not just for their potential access to funding but also for the expertise that they have now developed.  Companies like Shaftesbury, Breakthrough, Secret Location, DEEP, DHX Media and Xenophile have developed international reputations as talented television and digital media producers and been able to compete in international markets because of the early and consistent support of the Bell Fund.  Is this not what the CRTC said it wanted?

Moreover, at a time when Minister Mélanie Joly is in the middle of the #digicancon consultation, the timing of limiting the ability of the Canadian broadcast system to leverage digital media to drive audiences to the broadcast platforms and to make foreign sales is hard to understand.  The CRTC seems to be taking two steps back while Heritage is trying to take one step forward.

The Bell Fund has asked for a transition period to be able to react to the new rules, as the decision was effective September 1, 2016.  They have also asked for an increase to the 10% cap, given the significant potential damage of such a small cap.  The CRTC has said that it cannot make amendments to an existing decision but instead it turned the request into a Part 1 application which is now a public consultation.  If you wish to comment on the Bell Fund’s request you can do so through the link on that page.  The deadline is November 28, 2016.   There is no guarantee that any changes will be made but at least there is a forum for industry feedback.

Full disclosure – I have a working relationship with both the Bell Fund and Interactive Ontario, the trade association representing interactive digital media producers in Ontario.  I am not speaking for either of them with this post but trying to explain for you guys what is going on – as I do.  If you would like more information you can reach out to either of those organizations.

New CIPF Regulatory Framework – But What Does It Mean?

1 Reply

Yesterday, August 25, 2016, the CRTC released its new Broadcasting Regulatory Policy (2016-343) – a Policy Framework for Certified Independent Production Funds (“CIPFs”).  There are some minor and major changes to how CIPFs will be managed and the kinds of productions they will be able to fund going forward.

First, the framework sets the rules for how a CIPF has to be set up in order to be certified by the CRTC.  A fund needs to be certified to allow BDUs to allocate some of their mandated contribution to it.  A fund does not need to be certified if it does not need or want those contributions.  For example, while the Independent Production Fund is certified as a CIPF, its funding is based on an endowment so its management is outside of this framework.  However, most of the CIPFs do rely on BDU contributions so will need to abide by the new framework.

There are two types of changes to the framework:  1) new requirements in order to be certified and 2) new permissions which a CIPF may wish to take advantage of.  With that in mind, let’s look at each of the changes in turn.

Requirement: Eliminate Licensed Broadcaster Commitment

Going forward, CIPFs must no longer require a broadcast licence or development commitment from a licensed broadcaster as a condition of funding.  This is to allow greater flexibility in funding by producers as they can access OTT services provided that those services are accessible to Canadians (so yes to Netflix Canada but no to Hulu).  However, tax credits still require a licensed broadcaster so there will not be many productions that will be able to take advantage of this new flexibility at the moment.  It may provide more opportunities for web series, however.  Additionally, CIPF funding is awarded as part of a subjective assessment and each one may decide that in its assessment it will reward a licensed broadcaster commitment with more points as evidence of greater potential audience.  It may be difficult, though not impossible, for a project with a non-traditional broadcaster to be competitive with projects with traditional broadcasters.

Requirement:  Redefining “new media project”

I find this one odd.  “New Media Project” has now been re-categorized as “non-programming digital content” by removing programming content such as webisodes from the definition.  While the Notice of Consultation asked intervenors to consider whether the current definition of “new media project” needed to be updated and many said that it did (mobisode anyone?), the CRTC makes no reference to any intervenor asking for “new media project” to be redefined in that way.

It is more troubling because those who work in interactive digital media (“IDM”) know that most IDM associated with television includes video content either as clips or even within the IDM.  Walls between forms of content are breaking down and this redefinition feels like a belated attempt to put up a wall that the industry does not need or want.  Those in Ontario are currently experiencing a similar challenge with changes to the Ontario Interactive Digital Media Tax Credit draft regulations which attempt to remove streaming sites from eligibility but went too far and remove digital media with any form of video from eligibility.  Standalone web series may still be financed through the change to the broadcaster requirement (and because IPF is outside this framework) but as the new definition (‘innovative projects such as story-driven videogames, interactive or customizable web content, apps and all other similar types of non-programming content’) is very brief it is not clear whether the inclusion of video within ‘non-programming digital content’ will exclude it from eligibility.

Requirement: Maintain cap of 10% on non-programming digital content

CIPFs were limited to spending no more than 10% of their fund on ‘new media projects’ or now ‘non-programming digital content’.  A number of the CIPFs wanted greater flexibility to allocate more or less of their funds to digital media while on the other side the broadcasters wanted to keep the cap to ensure that most of the funds stayed within the licensed system.  The cap is being maintained, though for the more restricted definition of non-programming content.

Permission:  Canadian content certification points

Sigh.  How many times do we have to talk about this?  OK, so the CIPFs can now fund projects with a minimum of 6 CAVCO points.  But will they?  The decision says, without evidence, that the current limit of 8 points ‘excludes many productions that could otherwise be of high quality and qualify as Canadian’.  What exactly isn’t getting funded?   Bueller?

For those of you who were around during the Canada Media Fund review in 2008 (which excludes all of this current Commission), you will recall that when parties argued that CMF needed to lower its point count because lower point count shows would sell better, lots of evidence was presented to show that in fact 10/10 point Canadian programs sell better than 6 point (what we used to call ‘industrial’) programming.  It is hard to get more Canadian these days than “Murdoch Mysteries” and it sells all around the world.  When we used to produce a lot of 6 point productions there was a market internationally for “Andromeda” and “Mutant X” but it has pretty much dried up as international markets focus more on domestic production.  A high quality production that reflects a distinct domestic voice such as “Murdoch Mysteries” or “Motive” but also “Doctor Who” or “The Bridge” or “Wentworth” sells better internationally. It just does.

On a more practical note, how will these 6 point projects get financed?  For one, CMF still requires 8 points. Will the 6 point projects be competitive in the selection process with 8 and 10 point projects with greater sales potential?  A key sentence in the decision is “CIPFs will continue to have the discretion to finance the productions of their choice, based on their expertise and measurements of success”.  So only time will tell as to whether this change will have any real impact.

Permission:  Eligibility of Co-Ventures and Co-Productions

While the discussion in the decision is about treaty co-productions and co-ventures, the actual decision is only about co-ventures, this current Commission’s pet project.  This is probably because treaty co-productions are not actually ineligible for CIPF funding, though the CIPFs have rules to ensure that only majority Canadian co-productions benefit from Canadian funding.  Co-ventures have not been eligible.  Few productions use co-ventures (a system that allows Canadian producers to partner with non-treaty producers, i.e. from the U.S.) because they are too hard to finance. As well, the control that is then given over to the U.S. partner is not that attractive.  The Canadian partner must have 50% of creative control and profits but realistically co-ventures are U.S.-driven projects.

Time will tell whether CIPFs will actually allocate more funds to co-ventures or whether this is flexibility they really did not want or need.

Permission: Script and Concept Development

Previously, the requirement for a broadcast licence prevented CIPFs from funding early stage development except through non-BDU funds (i.e. endowments).  The removal of the requirement for a broadcast licence automatically frees up CIPFs to allocate more funds to early stage development, or even slate development, if they so wish.

Permission:  Promotion Funding

CIPFs have not been able to specifically fund promotion, an increasingly important part of any production in the crowded marketplace.  However, the CIPFs have limited funds and many stakeholders are concerned about money being reallocated from production to promotion.  It is therefore up to each CIPF as to whether it wants to reallocate any of its limited resources specifically to promotion.

Requirement:  Measurement of Audience Success

CIPFs each make subjective assessments of projects and decide to fund the ones that meet their criteria, including the greatest potential for success.  CIPFs were concerned that any formalization of that process would impede the subjective analysis but also attempt to standardize what are inherently non-standard funds which cover many different niches of programming and audience.  The CIPFs are likely relieved that the decision is instead to require the CIPFs to report on the audience success criteria used rather than to change them in any way.

Requirement:  Accessibility

CIPFs will now have to ensure that all programming that they fund is closed captioned and includes described video.  They are not required to fund it but to disclose it.  While broadcasters require closed captioning and described video, by requiring CIPFs to ensure that a project has it before it is funded, the theory is that this rule will ensure that productions are developed with accessibility guidelines in place rather than dealt with after the fact in post-production.  This will have little effect on CIPFs except as a check box on their application form but may have a positive effect on production planning for accessibility.

Requirement:  Reflection of OLMCs

There are no requirements currently to reflect in any way Official Language Minority Communities (OLMCs).  The new framework will require that one person on the selection committee for a CIPF will be responsible for ensuring that OLMCs are properly reflected in decision making.  Annual reports will now have to track OLMC projects.  There is no quota system so it is not clear how the Commission will define ‘properly reflect’ and what penalty there might be.  Many CIPFs already fund OLMC projects on a regular basis so this may only be an added reporting requirement.

Requirement:  Governance

The Notice of Consultation hinted at possible major changes to the governance of the CIPFs, which worried many intervenors who could not see any problems that needed to be fixed.  However, with vertical integration there were some concerns about how the Boards of the CIPFs were constituted in order to ensure that they remain independent of their contributors.  Two thirds of Board members must now be independent, rather than previously no more than one-third could be members representing BDUs.  The definition of independent excludes employees, officers, directors etc. of a contributor or its affiliates.  For example, an employee of CTV would be independent of Bell under the old rules but not under the new rules.

Additional wording was also added to the conflict of interest language to require that decisions are made ‘absent of actual or perceived conflicts of interest’ but without setting any specific criteria to abide by.

Requirement:  Reporting

While most CIPFs publish annual reports there was no requirement to do so nor any criteria for those reports.  This is now standardized with few additional criteria beyond what most CIPFs already report on.  They will also have to submit audited financial statements.  The Commission understands that this could be an administrative burden for smaller funds which might not be able to cover the cost of an audit, particularly with the cap of 5% on administration costs.  These smaller funds can apply for an exemption from the audit if they can prove it would be unduly burdensome.

 

This revised policy framework will go into effect September 1, 2016 however it will take time for the funds to review and implement the changes into their guidelines, and have those changes approved by their boards.  There are no transition rules so it is not clear how quickly the CIPFs will have to change those parts of their guidelines that must change, before the Commission declares them offside of the new policy framework.  The only real penalty is being de-certified so hopefully the Commission will give the CIPFs at least one fiscal year to implement all the necessary guideline changes and possibly even board changes.

#TalkBroadband CRTC Hearing – Why I’m Listening*

Leave a reply

The CRTC is currently in the middle of a three week hearing on basic telecommunications services , which has been hashtagged as #TalkBroadband because it really is about whether broadband should be regulated as a basic telecommunications service (“BSO” – basic service offering) and at what capacity.  It’s pretty telecomm and I don’t do well with telecomm (Bram Abramson did promise me a ‘Telecomm for Dummies’ tutorial or series of blog posts and I will pin him down to do that at some point) but the discussions have been far ranging and quite interesting even for a content policy wonk like myself.

I glaze over at discussions of bandwidth and speed.  I shouldn’t but as ‘good enough’ is a constantly moving target I find the discussion of what should be the minimum a bit of a mug’s game.  As soon as the CRTC sets a goal or mandates minimums they’ll be out of date.  It’s important to be fast enough and for the network to be able to handle the capacity no matter where you live but I’ll leave it to others to decided what those goals or mandated minimums should be and how often they should be updated.

As a content policy wonk I’m more interested in the discussion about affordable universal access because I know that before long everyone will need access to broadband to have the choice to watch a variety of entertainment programming.  I don’t want to see anyone left behind because they can’t afford it, there isn’t appropriate infrastructure or they don’t have the necessary digital literacy to take full advantage of this world or even know that they should want it.

Until recently, the government and the CRTC have been focused on ensuring that rural and northern communities were connected and a lot of the discussion during the #TalkBroadband hearing has continued to focus on it.  During this hearing there has been a broadening of the discussion though to include urban affordability both on the part of intervenors and through questions raised by commissioners. If access to broadband is essential to citizenship then the CRTC has to consider establishing rules or guidelines to ensure that all Canadians have access, that they can afford, to broadband regardless of where they live.

I’ve been working with Syrian refugees recently and it really brought home to me how important broadband is to citizenship and how difficult it is to pay for it on a reduced income.  Social assistance barely covers rent in Toronto plus food and electricity.  Families also need at least two mobile phones and an Internet connection to be able to communicate with each other, access government and settlement services and keep in touch with family back home.  I would also like them to be able to access Canadian programming to help them settle in their new country.  Cable is just too expensive but at least with an Internet connection they can access CBC.ca and other (possibly less Canadian) broadcaster websites as well as content in their own language.

From this experience I am even more convinced of the importance of broadband to citizenship but it doesn’t stop there.  I’ve also been listening at this hearing to great examples of the importance of broadband to isolated communities in the north, minority language communities and rural communities.   I look forward to other examples over the course of the hearings from other stakeholders.

The Commission is also starting to talk about digital literacy and the fact that it isn’t good enough to just present access but we need to ensure that everyone knows how to access broadband and why they should want to.   Should there be funding from stakeholders or the government and how should it be implemented to ensure that no one is left behind.  Interesting discussions.

To bring it back to content creators and providers, as we move into a multiplatform or platform neutral world, we need to ensure that the entire country has the opportunity to chose Canadian programming on whatever platform it is presented.  We should be struggling with the issues of regulation or not, contributions to Canadian programming or not, and not have to wonder if any segment of the population has been left out of the system that we are trying to create.

That’s why I’m listening.

 

*I gave up on watching it on CPAC because, ironically, the online feed kept breaking up so I’ve just been on the CRTC’s audio feed.

Dueling Industry Conferences

Leave a reply

It’s hard not to compare industry forums when they are back to back.  Thursday the Banff Media Festival held its “Content Industries Connect” conference at the Ritz Carlton.  Swanky.  It was a paid event.  In the past it had been part of the Academy’s Screen Week but this year while during Screen Week it wasn’t affiliated with the Academy (there’s a story there somewhere but I don’t know it).  Friday the official Industry Forum took place, hosted by the Academy, CMPA and DGC.  It was free for members of those three associations and took place at the TIFF Lightbox.  Not quite as swanky but the seats were more comfortable.

I don’t know if anyone went to all of both.  I was signed up for both but came late to Banff and skipped out of one of the Industry Forum panels.  It’s just too much of a time commitment to do both.  Most people seemed to pick one or the other.  The topics were quite similar but Banff was the only one with a Media Leaders panel so my impression is that the senior executives chose to pop in to the end of the Banff day to attend the Media Leaders panel and bypassed the Industry Forum.  The Industry Forum was more grassroots given the free admission for members of those organizations.  The speakers seemed to be aware of that and targeted the production community rather than the executives with their discussion.    So while the topics were the same, they ended up being quite different days (I’m not going to compare the cocktail parties though for me the food at the Industry Forum won – quinoa battered shrimp and lamb chops!).

As someone who attends a lot of conferences I didn’t think I’d miss much by skipping the Banff panel on The Future of Content in a Multiplatform World and based on the tweets and what I heard, it was the same talk we’ve been hearing for the past year from Vice, Shomi, Blue Ant and CBC. I don’t know anyone who attended the panel on brand engagement with speakers from Hyundai, Microsoft and Kraft and the tweets don’t tell me much either.  Honestly, it seemed an odd choice for the content crowd.  I finally made it to the conference in time for the “Letterkenny” panel.  Full disclosure – I haven’t seen it all (I don’t have CraveTV) but every second of “Letterkenny” that I’ve seen makes me laugh.  I enjoyed the clips, hearing about the process, learning about its success (more views on CraveTV than any other show in its catalogue including Seinfeld and South Park) and its renewal announced during the panel.

Then there was the Media Leaders panel.  Banff has it every year that they have done this event.  This year there were only two leaders after consolidation (and CBC cancelled) – Mary Ann Turcke from Bell Media and Doug Murphy from Corus.  Talking to people afterwards there was one word that seemed to sum up the panel and it’s not a polite word.  It starts with a b.  There was a very negative reaction to Doug Murphy’s discussion of the CRTC’s decision to not require Terms of Trade as part of broadcast licences – they’re now free to treat every deal like a snowflake.  Yes, a snowflake.  Which ignores the very real imbalance in bargaining power between the mega-broadcasters and most independent producers.  There was a marked contrast between this Media Leaders panel and the one last month at Prime Time – this one was channeling ‘sunny ways’.  Everything is going to be great.  Netflix isn’t a threat as they’re now starting to partner with it, get high profile casting because of its involvement and negotiate windows.  It’ll be interesting to see if they go back to ‘Netflix is heralding the end of the world as we know it if you don’t deregulate us’ mantra next time they’re in front of the CRTC.    They were also pretty positive about pick and pay.  Sure a few of their services will die but producers shouldn’t worry because the remaining ones will only be bigger and better.  Since the jury is still out on this big shift in consumer behaviour due to pick and pay that has been predicted by some, this could mean that pick and pay is going to be used as an excuse to close up some of the underperformers. Again – we’ll have to wait and see what happens in front of the CRTC.

Now off to the Industry Forum.  The first panel was on discoverability.  I’m still not sure we’re all talking about the same thing (push vs. pull) but this panel was a lot more about new techniques to find audiences and provide them with what they want than the discoverability panel at Prime Time which talked more about traditional marketing using digital platforms (and I believe that it was also programmed by the CMPA since it was branded Prime Time Any Time).  In particular, it was useful to hear about Richard Kanee (CBC) and Ramona Pringle (interactive digital media producer) experimenting in finding and engaging audiences.  I appreciated Kanee’s admission that the CBC had missed social media engagement opportunities in promoting “Strange Empire” (you can’t expect him to take responsibility for the whole marketing mess) and his admonition that producers and broadcasters shouldn’t always chase the latest new thing.  Some of the tried and true engagement methods, like email newsletters, still work and should remain part of your strategy instead of running after all the riskier new methods.  Final favourite bit of wisdom from the panel was that the studios (and broadcasters and producers) should be learning audience engagement from the YouTubers who have learned how to find, support and grow their audiences.  Casting them in a mainstream television show isn’t enough to migrate their audience, but if the YouTubers develop their own television show their audience will recognize the authenticity and watch.

The next panel was on co-production featuring three Canadian majority copros:  “Book of Negroes”, “Born to be Blue” and “Room”.  There was a good discussion of why go copro – the added money allowed them all to afford higher profile talent which generated more sales.  It also allowed them to access government funding rather than distributor advances which meant casting the best person for the part rather than for international sales.  Unfortunately, that government funding helped those stars become international hits and now it’s unlikely that anyone in Canada can afford them so for me there is a flaw in that system.

I have to admit that I stepped out and missed the “Orphan Black” panel not because I don’t love the show (I do!) but because I’ve seen a few “Orphan Black” panels over the years.  I ran into a few others doing the same thing so we did our own networking.  We went back in for the keynote speech from Colin Brown, who among other things is a professor of film and economics at NYU.  He gave a very insightful presentation on the international markets for feature films and how they differ between markets and between films and the business case for investing in a mid-size studio producing a slate of mid-range budget films.  His add-on bit about Canada was less insightful as the audience did not need to be told who are the Canadians in Hollywood or that we should be prouder of all the great talent who have left.  As someone who has spent their entire career in the domestic film and television industry I was not impressed.   But I am thinking about what Canadian stories might be naturals for the Chinese and Egyptian markets.  Hmm.

So did we need two such conferences in two days?  Nope.  They could have been merged and been one great day – as long as they kept the quinoa-battered shrimp.

Heritage Committee on Local TV

Leave a reply

This morning I listened to the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage (#CHPC).  It was their first meeting on a study on ‘The Media and Local Communities’ which is also their first study.  I tuned in because it’s the first real meeting for this committee in this Parliament and I wanted to hear them interact with senior staff at Heritage and the CRTC (and then last minute additions from Industry – I mean Innovation, Science and Economic Development – and the Competition Bureau).  I’m not that interested in local tv but I’m glad I did tune in.

I was talking to my local MP, Julie Dabrusin, on the weekend since she sits on the Heritage Committee and I realized when I spoke to her about the local tv study that her interests in it were broader than my interpretation of the terms of reference of the study.  The minutes describe it as:

“… how Canadians, and especially local communities, are informed about local and regional experiences through news, broadcasting, digital and print media; the unintended consequences of news media concentration and the erosion of local news reporting and the impact of new media”

In listening to the meeting though I was struck by how wide ranging the questions were. Heritage started off by giving a very rapid ‘Canadian media policy 101’ talk with what sounded like (the feed was audio-only) a lot of slides.  A few of the MPs sounded overwhelmed.  It should be remembered that I believe Pierre Nantel (NDP) and Hedy Fry (Lib) are the only MPs there with previous experience on the committee.   So some of the questions continued on the 101 theme (‘how is Canadian media funded’ – I think I heard Helen Kennedy’s sigh before she started counting the ways) while others went off on to topics like diversity, funding for digital media, local news, newspaper consolidation, Broadcasting Act objectives, the Bell-Astral merger and the inability for anyone to make any money on digital platforms (that was a Conservative MP statement without any evidence).

The CRTC could not really say much because their local tv proceeding is outstanding and there are rules about not discussing a pending proceeding.  They did chat a bit about why LPIF wasn’t renewed, which honestly could have been the topic of a whole meeting as it had been a whole hearing.  They made a pitch that they are lowering barriers to innovation and encouraging broadcasters to evolve to multiplatform businesses, though without specifics.  Innovation, Science and Economic Development made some odd statements about how millennials don’t care about funding for digital media, just access and making money from their content.  Umm, just because you can make content for peanuts doesn’t mean you want to.   The Competition Bureau said they didn’t care about whether diversity of voices was impacted by consolidation, only if there was a negative economic impact.

There were some good questions but my favourites unfortunately were thrown in at the end when there wasn’t time for answers so we won’t hear them publicly.  Julie Dabrusin asked if the CRTC planned to update the 8 year old Diversity study (I swear I didn’t plant that question) and Hedy Fry asked who was in a position to regulate digital platforms for accuracy.  I suspect Scott Hutton of the CRTC was pretty happy there was no time to answer that last one!  The answers should be incorporated in their report so I’ll be looking for them.

Things could obviously change over the minimum 10 meetings that will be devoted to this study but based on today the Committee will be asking all sorts of questions about the media landscape and I’ll try to pay attention when I can.  It’s good to hear what the MPs are interested in and what topics they need help on (i.e. yes, there are businesses making money with content on digital platforms).