Three Canadian producer associations – the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA), L’association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) and l’Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada (APFC) – have joined screen production organizations from around the world issuing a united call for stronger government regulation of global streaming platforms, and more protection for independently-owned IP.
Twenty industry organizations, representing what the ad hoc consortium calls “tens of thousands of screen industry businesses,” are behind the joint statement. Signatory organizations include Screen Producers Australia (SPA); European Audiovisual Production (CEPI); and Screen Producers Ireland (SPI), among others.
Chief among the concerns outlined in the joint statement is the sustainability of the international screen production industry in an entertainment ecosystem where global streamers are playing an increasingly important role in the commissioning, production and distribution of content.
The statement places emphasis on the importance of local content, in terms of both nurturing and maintaining healthy regional production businesses, and in providing audiences with stories that reflect their cultural realities.
Structured as a series of bullet points, the statement lays out a series of principles that its authors believe should guide government regulation of streaming platforms. Among them: “All platforms that derive financial benefit from conducting business in the local market should financially contribute, proportionally, to the creation of new local content for the benefit of local audiences.”
Elsewhere, the statement adds: “Government has a role to address market failure and any imbalance in commercial bargaining power in the creation and delivery of quality new local screen content.”
The organizations also zero in on the thorny issue of IP retention for prodcos. “Independent screen businesses should own and/or retain control of the intellectual property (IP), and rights in their work, including the right to financially participate in the success generated by their work on a platform, created as part of a nation’s own unique cultural heritage,” the statement reads.
“Any government regulated investment framework should specify that the majority of this investment should be fulfilled through projects where IP is under the control of independent screen businesses. This principle will assist businesses to remain strong and sustainable, thereby enhancing their capacity to invest in the development and production of new IP,” it continues.
Canada’s screen sector has voiced a strong need for regulatory changes through the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) ongoing consultation process to implement Bill C-11, a.k.a the Online Streaming Act.
Phase one of the consultations saw stakeholders in funding, broadcasting and production argue that the industry needs urgent changes to bring new contributions into the system via foreign-owned online undertakings, as falling revenue at the broadcaster level means a reduced ability to invest in and contribute to Canadian content. Phase two of the CRTC’s consultations began this summer with consultations on broadcasting fees, and will later look at the definition of Canadian and Indigenous content.
CMPA president and CEO Reynolds Mastin said the joint call is “a vivid demonstration that the issues faced by independent producers here in Canada are also confronting domestic producers in numerous other countries,” in a statement.
He added that while it “underscores the significant scope” of the issue, it also opens “a path to work collaboratively across borders to develop common solutions that will bolster individual national sectors, while also creating a more vibrant global industry.”
While several territories around the world are represented within the production organizations listed as signatories, there are none from the U.S. or U.K. that have signed on.
In addition to the CMPA, AQPM, APFC, SPA, SPI and CEPI, other organizations throwing their weight behind the statement include Spain’s AECINE, or Asociación de productoras de Cine Independiente and Asociación de Productores Audiovisual Independientes; Animation in Europe; AnimFrance; Italy’s Associazione Produttori Audiovisivi; Portugal’s Associação Producers Cinema Audiovisual and Associação de Produtores Independentes de Televisão; The European Producers Club; the Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers; Slovenia’s Association of Slovene Film Producers; Germany’s Produzentenverband; The Screen Production and Development Association in New Zealand; Belgium’s Union of Francophone Producers of Films & Series; and the European Union’s Union Syndicale de la Production Audiovisuelle.
With files from Kelly Townsend
A version of this story originally appeared in Realscreen
Image: Unsplash