Corus calls on CRTC to scrap independent production quotas

OTTAWA--The CRTC should drop independent production quotas that get the way of in-house content producers, Corus Entertainment Inc. said in its submission for Industry Canada’s digital economy consultation. The CRTC currently requires that 75 per cent of Canadian television content to be produced by independent producers, and in a comment submitted to Industry Canada, Corus said the condition should be dropped. “When I started in broadcasting, there wasn’t such a thing as these independent producer rules,” Gary Maavara, Corus’ executive vice-president and general counsel, told The Wire Report in an interview. “They were designed to create an industry of independent production. The problem is that it really hasn’t worked.” Maavara added that most Canadian producers live a “hand-to-mouth” existence without guaranteed, steady work. “As you’re trying to foster the creation of something, don’t stand in the way of the creation of content,” Maavara said. “Corus is one of the largest content companies in Canada, but we face constraints, even in using the content we create on our own channels.” Ian Morrison, a spokesman for the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, an independent watchdog group, said in an interview that 75 per cent may not be the best number, but that independent producers should create at least half of Canadian content. “In this highly consolidated broadcasting environment, a diversity of voices is an important broadcasting policy objective,” added Anne Trueman, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), in an email to The Wire Report. “We believe independent producers are the best vehicle to achieve this objective—a concept recently confirmed by the CRTC in its policy decision.” Maavara said that removing the independent production quotas would not spell the end for independent production companies. “We’re never going to make all of our own content,” he said. Corus, he added, does not want to take too much of a financial risk producing content internally, and that the company does not have a “monopoly on good ideas.” But Morrison suggested that he does not trust companies like Corus to support independent producers without a condition forcing them to do it. “My reaction is that we weren’t born yesterday,” Morrison said. “We wouldn’t trust a company to do something that was against its economic interest and in the national interest.” Corus’ submission also touched on copyright, emphasizing the need to defend creators’ rights. “The advent of the digital era poses perplexing challenges for all players in the system. The challenge for government is that it has no legal or practical jurisdiction over much of the activity that will define the content creation and distribution environment,” Corus wrote. Maavara said Corus is largely in favour of the Conservative government’s proposed amendments to the Copyright Act through Bill C-32. He said the bill’s proposal to legally protect digital locks and digital rights management is important for large media companies like Corus to control their libraries. But critics say the bill's protection for digital locks goes too far, trumping existing consumer rights like fair dealing and other user exceptions in the legislation. Maavara said Corus takes issue with the bill’s user-generated content exemption, the so-called “Youtube exception.” The exception allows users to remix content for non-commercial purposes so long as it is “legitimately acquired” and the new work is not a substitute for the original material. “If somebody took one of our major shows, like Babar, and added something to it, say they created a parody… and uploaded it to a site like YouTube, not only would the exemption give them the ability to do that, it would also create a new copyright in their work while at the same time denigrating from our rights,” Maavara said. Consumer rights advocates say many of the new exceptions in the legislation are important to legalize everyday uses of copyrighted materials in the digital age, such as creating backup copies, saving files for later use, remixing, or making user-generated content. Corus also wrote that it supports the creation of an independent panel of experts to digest the recommendations Industry Canada received through its digital economy consultation and report to the government. “It’s very hard for a government to come out with recommendations on first instance without suffering from an onslaught of politics,” Mavaara said. “What this does is it at least allows for an agenda to be set by the panel. Then the government can work with that on a political basis.” jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Corus calls on CRTC to scrap independent production quotas

Broadcast | July 15, 2010

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Corus calls on CRTC to scrap independent production quotas

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