With layoffs looming, CBC execs want foreign streaming giants to pay more to support Cancon

A day after CBC/Radio-Canada announced it plans to slash its staff by about 10 per cent to address mounting budget troubles, the company’s executives went before the broadcasting regulator with a request that could pump more money into the system.

Barbara Williams, the CBC’s vice-president of English services, and her French counterpart Dany Meloul said the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) should push ahead with a plan to force foreign players like Amazon, Apple, Disney and Netflix to pay up to support struggling Canadian content producers.

These foreign operators have built streaming services with millions of Canadian subscribers and they don’t do enough to support the creative ecosystem in this country, Williams and Meloul argued.

“We believe if you’re going to come into this market, you’ve got to pay to play,” Williams said of the largely U.S.-owned streaming giants. “You’ve got to pay a bit of a cover charge to join this special club.”

Streaming giants should “contribute to the system that they are benefiting from so dramatically,” Williams said.

In addition to announcing that about 600 people will lose their jobs in the months ahead, CBC also said Monday it would cut its production and acquisitions budget by about $40 million a year.

That means less money will be paid out to the independent producers and other creative types who actually make some of the shows that air on the CBC’s networks.

To staunch the bleeding, the CBC brass said the CRTC should go ahead with a plan to make largely foreign streaming services pay more into the Canadian system.

Without more financial support, “domestic production of virtually all genres of Canadian programming is not sustainable, given the size of our market,” Bev Kirshenblatt, the CBC’s executive director of regulatory affairs, told CRTC commissioners.

CBC management came in for criticism Tuesday after the company’s president and CEO, Catherine Tait, declined to rule out paying management bonuses next year.

In an interview with CBC’s The National, Tait was non-committal when asked if the corporation would withhold bonuses in a year when so many unionized staff will be shown the door.

Last year, the CBC paid out about $16 million to managers, according to documents obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation through an access-to-information request.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who has vowed to defund the CBC while maintaining the French service if elected, pounced on Tait’s comments and directed his social media followers to watch the exchange.

“The head of the CBC won’t commit to cancelling end-of-year executive bonuses while she lays off 600 workers just weeks before the holidays,” Poilievre said.

NDP MP Peter Julian, the party’s heritage critic, said he is “surprised and shocked” to hear the CBC is contemplating bonuses in a year of cuts.

“Our message very clearly to CBC is they shouldn’t be putting executive bonuses above local journalism,” Julian said.

Make foreign streamers pay: CBC

After the passage of Bill C-11, the Liberal government’s Online Streaming Act, big digital players that distribute video and audio content in Canada are now subject to CRTC regulation.

To help prop up the Canadian broadcasting landscape that has atrophied due to changing market dynamics and stagnant government funding, the CRTC is poised to expand existing Canadian content requirements to services like Amazon Prime Video and Netflix and require them to pay more into funds that support the production of that content.

The CRTC has suggested it will levy an “initial base contribution” on these foreign players before it settles on the final regulatory regime.

That proposal has been strenuously opposed by U.S. streaming platforms who say they don’t want to pay up before that new regime has been finalized — something that could take years.

These platforms also maintain they already support the Canadian production sector by commissioning projects that are made here.

They’ve also argued before the CRTC that they shouldn’t have to pay into funds they may never actually benefit from.

Canadian broadcasters and producers, meanwhile, say the money is needed now before the system collapses.

The CBC wants any new money collected from these foreign services to be directed to the existing Canadian Media Fund (CMF) and Canadian Independent Production Fund (CIPF), which help get Canadian TV shows made.

The CBC also wants to see some money paid to the Indigenous Screen Office, which supports First Nations, Metis and Inuit productions.

The execs also said if there’s a new fund to support local news, CBC/Radio-Canada should be able to tap funds from that program.

The CMF currently gets the bulk of its money from cable and satellite providers like Bell, Rogers, Telus and Videotron under a set formula.

As it stands, these companies pay the equivalent of 5 per cent of their revenue into the funds.

With revenue in decline as a result of rampant cord-cutting, the CMF now has access to less money.

If the CRTC were to apply the same funding formula to the giants that operate streaming platforms, that could generate tens of millions more dollars to produce Canadian programming.

Without a cash injection from these big players, Canada will cede more of its “cultural sovereignty” to foreign outfits, Williams said.

She said companies like Netflix are focused on profits while Canadian producers have a different approach: they create culturally relevant programming that’s not always financially viable without support from CRTC-mandated funds.

“We’re proud of the Canadian industry. We think it does something special and distinctive,” Williams said, adding foreign players “will never have the same obligation or the same commitment or deep understanding of what we’re trying to do with a fully Canadian owned and controlled system.”