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This afternoon, on unceded Anishinabe Algonquin territory currently the subject of treaty negotiation, a British colonial ceremony was held. With parliament only retaining British tradition, we were reminded by a "speech from the throne" that to this day the settler-state doesn't fully recognize the two groups who make up Canada: European colonialists/settlers and the peoples who had already been here for thousands of years. As I read the text of the Speech from the Throne I noticed a few themes. I could easily put them under an overall headline of the continuation of narrowly harnessing European world views to attempt to further public policy goals. A  romanticization of over 150 years of the members of our European settler-state parliament dealing with challenges, with no recognition or harnessing of the experiences of the peoples who were already here for thousands of years. The continuation of the European entitlements vs responsibility world view around rights, whic...

CBC runs InCanada , an "online" Canadian Media Panel. I put "online" in quotations because while the panel is online, the CBC's broadcaster bias is always visible in how they ask questions. The latest survey is no exception. The survey was essentially about Alias Grace , a Canadian-American miniseries that will air on CBC on September 25, 2017, and on Netflix on November 3, 2017. The survey typically conflates Netflix with broadcasters, when Netflix is not a broadcaster . This is about as nonsensical as confusing a radio station with a record store when discussing music, and yet the legacy broadcasters continue to try to push this nonsense. I sometimes make the comparison to the difference between an outhouse and indoor plumbing: Like broadcasting, people made use of outhouses before modern conveniences like indoor plumbing came along. And like indoor plumbing, people aren't likely to want to go backwards once they get used to online streaming. While outhous...

I just finished season 1 of Van Helsing via Netflix Canada. Filmed in Vancouver with most cast members being Canadian, this is the type of Canadian content that makes me feel proud of Canadian talent.  There were so many familiar Canadian actors from other series out of Vancouver including Flash and Sanctuary, and it even had Amanda Tapping directing 4 episodes. Nomadic Pictures , the producer, operates out of Calgary. I'm excited to hear that season 2 has already been ordered, and that production starts next month.  My hope is that for future seasons that legal Internet distribution will be simultaneous with any broadcast-era distribution. The Wikipedia page for the series  suggests that some fortunate events happened for this to be released on Netflix Canada on December 23'rd (after the September 23 broadcast launch) rather than being tied up in broadcast-only licensing for much longer : Super Channel's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. In earlier articles ( Ad ...

When the current Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly suggested that someone saying " Without culture, nobody would be on the internet" was thoughtful, and possibly even a new idea, I became aware that this is a area of policy that is new for Ms Joly. We now see a new campaign aimed at the Minister called Focus On Creators launched by several associations which has a similar message the Minister may not have a context for. While I am an author of software and non-software works, and in my policy analysis and activism I always have a Focus on Creators, I do not agree that all the groups who are promoting this campaign have that same focus.  All too often representatives of these groups claim the interests of some intermediary is synonymous with the interests of a group of creators, and are focused on that intermediary.   Technology giveth, and technology taketh away It is normal technological and societal progress that new technology disrupts old technology, as well as the busines...

I own Samsung and ViewSonic televisions,  Philips and Panasonic DVD players, and mobile devices from ASUS, Huawei and LG.   I don't think I know anyone who only uses Canadian designed and manufactured technology to watch scripted programming.  I never heard a Minister of Canadian Heritage claiming that these technology companies should be brought "into the system", confusing these technologies as being part of the broadcast system and thus should be regulated as part of it. Why does Minister Joly apparently believe that other technology products and services such as Netflix, Google (YouTube, and Play Movies and TV), or Amazon Video should be brought into the system?  These technology companies are no more part of the system than the hardware manufacturers. When discussing how Canadian Content Creators harmed when Netflix claimed to be a "broadcaster" I discussed the differences between content libraries and broadcasters/BDUs.  There is a need to regulate compan...

The deadline to participate in the Canadian content in the digital world consultation is this Friday, Nov 25, 2016 (See end of post). While you may not have time to publish your own ideas, you should still take the time to voice your support for ideas you agree with. As a new media supporter who "cut the chord" (well, unsubscribed from Cable TV -- the cabling is still all over the house ;-) a few years back I have a pro-Internet perspective. This is true regardless of the type of creativity we are talking about, and while most of my submissions focus on scripted television (as much of the other submissions did), the ideas apply equally regardless of the type of digitally stored and communicated content. As a software author and fan of the creativity of others I want Canadian creators to be well paid for their contributions, but don't believe that subsidizing old-media intermediaries is the way to do it. I have made a number of submissions to the consultation since it was...

There are a number of people active in the DigiCanCon debate that are claiming that Netflix isn't paying its fair share of taxes and also that Internet Service Providers (often meaning Internet transit routing providers, or access providers) and other parts of the Information and Communications Technology industry should pay special taxes to subsidize the content industry . As there are a wide variety of issues being lumped together, I'll try to break them down and comment on each individually to make sense of them.  The types I have seen so far are as follows: GST/HST issues Canadian Media Fund contributions Copyright levies on content distribution mechanisms Because the ICT industries somehow owes the content industry GST/HST issues There are many flaws with the GST/HST, but I'm confused what these flaws have to do with a Heritage Canada consultation, the content industry, or parts of the ICT industries.  When people say they are against a Netflix tax, this is not what th...

I've been a happy Netflix customer since 2011, dropped cable TV in 2012 , and frequently purchase DVD's of movies or seasons of scripted TV programming. This year I've reviewed CraveTV ,   CTV GO and Showcase's website , and decided to subscribe to Shomi to do a review. As with other services offered by broadcaster or BDUs (cable companies) I didn't expect to be happy with Shomi. What I (and a growing percentage of the market) want is to be able to conveniently watch the shows I want, at a location I want, at a time of my choosing, on devices of my choosing, and at a reasonable price. What the broadcast industry wants to offer is programming of their choosing, at a time of their choosing, on devices of their choosing, and at the maximum price they believe the market will bear.  The digital transition for cable was several steps backward from analog where subscribers could choose their own brand of tuners to digital where the tuner brand is imposed.  They are not of...

One of the odd contributions to the #DigiCanCon discussion was from ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists).  A tweet of their press release was re-tweeted by the Writers Guild of Canada (screenwriters), which is how I noticed it. A reply to @mgeist : Canadians are more united than you think. https://t.co/Hlnlyfc0KA #DigiCanCon #cdntv #cdnfilm https://t.co/8xAwnjisF3 — ACTRA National (@ACTRAnat) September 15, 2016 In their press release ACTRA proves Michael Geist's point.  Michael Geist was writing about how audiences (potential fans) were concerned with discovery and access to content, while "stakeholders" were focused on money.  In their reply ACTRA not only ignores what audiences were saying, but falsely claims that we were also talking about money. I am a television fan.  I'm not just a television viewer, but a fan of the shows I like.  I don't watch sports or reality television, and focus on scripted programming.  I go to ...

Shomi has announced they are shutting down as of November 30.  I just signed up for the trial period in order to do a technology review, but I was never interested in the programming.   I assumed that being offered by another BDU it would be just like Bell's CraveTV which never even attempted to be competitive with Netflix . A Canadian Press story offers the all too familiar perspective from the industry, which is the claim that Bell and Rogers were trying to play catch-up with Netflix.  The reality is that while Netflix is intended to be a replacement of broadcast, CraveTV is only an add-on to broadcast and doesn't offer a comparable service. I continue to look forward to real competition for Netflix , but don't expect to see it from a broadcaster or a BDU.

Reading The Netflix Backlash: Why Hollywood Fears a Content Monopoly  feels so disconnected from my experience as a fan of the works of scripted video (television) productions.  There are things I agree with, but the solutions being proposed are disconnected and in my mind counterproductive. I too fear a distribution monopoly, and I think it is a problem that Netflix is largely alone in their market.  As much as the legacy BDU and telecom industry can claim that CraveTV or Shomi are "Canadian" competitors,  they are not in the same market . Netflix originals offers me programming that is available to me at the time of public release, is made available in all markets (doesn't block Canada for Netflix originals), and is available on all the devices I own that I'd ever want to watch television on.  It even passes the "wife test", meaning it is a technology which someone who doesn't love to spend time playing with technology all the time would be willing to ...

I just watched Ascension  on Netflix. Spoilers, Sweety ..   It is really hard to discuss this show without giving something away.  Please consider watching the miniseries before reading, and come back..   It's only 6 episodes long... The show reminded me of many Joss Whedon series like Firefly and Dollhouse which really aren't made for broadcast television.  They are smart, and have longer stories that evolve where you really don't have a clue what the show is about until many episodes in.   And like those shows, there is a superheroine that really surprises the audience. The 6 episodes are in 3 2-part chapter pairs, with some pretty amazing reveals at the end of each chapter. Chapter 1 ends with the revelation that the ship never took off, and that this is an experiment being held on earth.  What is the experiment?  Is it really about learning about the human impact of multi-generational space flight? Chapter 2 ends with the X-men style superhero...

Some copyright holders and their lobbyists claim the reason people infringe Copyright is because they don't want to pay, and that copyright infringement is the largest single problem reducing their revenue potential. Evidence I've seen in my decades involved in the copyright revision process suggested neither are true, and that barriers put up by the copyright holders are the largest incentive to infringe and the largest barrier to revenue potential. The BBC is an example of a broadcaster I would like to pay money and subscribe to (not only for Doctor Who ), but that continues to put up barriers to me doing so. I am not a subscriber to a BDU , which is one of the common tied sales used by broadcasters. What potential customers like myself want for television and movie content is a subscription service like Netflix which isn't tied to any specific BDU or Internet provider, and which works on enough devices that it works on devices which we own. It's not just millenn...