Canadian Broadband → Re: New Internet Tax Coming

That would pretty much kill the film industry in Canada, except for small indie shows. Watch the end credits on the next movie you watch. Count the number of people involved.

Now consider that every single one of those names is a person that has to be employed. Under our employment standards and tax structure. Laws, minimum wage, and taxes/fees on the employer for things like EI & CPP. Now consider that every single one of those jobs could be done somewhere else.

Take away the tax benefits to the film industry and tell them to be fiscally responsible, they're just going to pack up and go somewhere else where it's not as expensive to employ somebody.

Well then stop paying actors 20m a movie or 7m an episode and a lot of those people get paid rather easily.

Or take away 6 of the 12 producers on a tv show/movie that make a couple of hundred/couple of million each.

The entertainment industry throws money around like it grows on trees and they need to change just like every other industry in this day and age.

The economy simply cannot sustain their spending habits any longer. The rest of the world has come to this realization about a decade and a half ago.

It's not my, nor the rest of the Canadian Tax Payer's responsibility to fund their playground.

FYI, I simply said no more taxes other than what's already there but I do support your new idea of taking away tax breaks completely!

Seriously, all enterprises get tax breaks. That is a far cry from a private slush fund supplied solely by the Canadian tax payer.

You read the rest of my post to see exactly where I am coming from, I went into great detail, provided stats and even a way to take the burden off the tax payer while still growing the fund, that would actually cost the tax payer nothing extra and could completely eliminate that dependency altogether.

There should also be new rules in place as to who qualifies. Simply grabbing a camera and saying you're making a movie/tv show should not be enough to entitle you to a payday. You make a pilot and prove that you can at least break even, then fine, you get some money. Otherwise go pound sand. Once you turn a profit, you pay the money back and start giving a percentage of whatever profit and royalties back to the fund/Canadian government. Let's say 5%, seeing how everyone finds that acceptable for the Canadian taxpayer. If it's good to break the backs of the middle-class, why not good for the ones asking for it?

However that would require the entertainment industry actually standing on it's own without it's hand out crying poor while spending BILLIONS of dollars needlessly a year.

PS, I would also like to see the payroll to match those ending credits where every single name on that list is a Canadian citizen, fully employed by the production as a full-time employee being paid and having deducted full benefits. I guarantee you a large majority are not. I would go even further than that and say almost all of the top earners are not. They would be private contractors or agents of an outside corporation. Many of these productions are like a shell game and will have half a dozen or more registered entities whom these people would be contracted by (via other entities).

The overwhelming majority of people in the entertainment industry don't make anywhere near that kind of money. Your average key grip makes half what I do, and even somebody key to a production like a cinematographer doesn't make significantly more. For every superstar pulling $20m on a film, you've got 200 people scraping by, and most of those are full time employees on salary, not being paid piecemeal per film.

The fund keeps those people employed in Canada.

Yes and if those superstars weren't getting 20m, then there would be more than enough. Which is exactly what I said in the very small section of my post you quoted and then completely ignored not only that but a very viable solution to keep that fund active that wouldn't cost the taxpayer anything and would eliminate the need for the taxpayer altogether while growing that fund plus a slew of very other valid and real points.

I'm not saying those keygrips and cinemetographers don't deserve to be paid but at the same time, it's not my fault that their bosses are so careless with their money, they are willing to throw away millions needlessly. If those bosses were financially responsible, there would be a plethora of money to pay those other non-superstars.

The Canadian taxpayer is not a money tree. There is a limit to what we can afford and will tolerate.

The entertainment industry is starting to feel the crunch now. What they don't realize is that they need to change and get with the times.

I'll categorize three different type of (scripted) production :

1 - A canadian production company with a canadian showrunner/writer submitting project to a canadian broadcaster who orders a pilot, then a series (ex: Saving Hope, Murdoch, Private Eyes, Cardinal, Orphan Black, etc.)
2 - An american production company (scenarios from LA) filming its series in Canada, hiring some principal and recurring roles to canadians, some guest american directors, but staff is almost or all canadian (WB/CW shows like Smallville, Nikita, Supernatural, Arrow, Flash, Legends, Supergirl, Reign, as well as ABC's Quantico's 1st season, and ABC's Designated Survivor).
3 - Co-productions with other countries, which could also move production in other countries. (ex: Vikings, Ransom, Taken, etc.)

Which type of production was targeting the internet tax ?

With any upcoming version of "tax money", are canadian producers supposed to target big-budget productions (think "GoT") or a bunch of small productions (think Citytv's Sunnyside, TVA's LOL)...

Edit : Also, should Rogers be allowed to pick money from that canadian fund jar to help finance production of Hockey Night in Canada, knowing they signed a $5.2 billion / 12 years contract with the NHL ? Shouldn't subscription revenues to Sportsnet and advertisement revenues pay completely for this ?

I honestly don't believe this internet tax would ultimately benefit any of them. I think the true motive behind it was to recoup some money for Robellus due to lost subs and would never make it's way to the fund in any way, shape or form.

And no, if I don't believe that Rogers should be able to touch that fund for HNIC. If it can afford to throw around billions of dollars for it (which is completely crazy and ties into my fiscal irresponsibility argument), then it should be able to be profitable producing it. If it cannot, then perhaps it shouldn't have spent so many billions for it, all the while expecting the Canadian taxpayer to bail them out.

From the looks of it, mostly advertising.

See:
»Canada Eyes a 5% Broadband Tax to Fund Canadian Media [21] comments

Also see the actual report:
»www.ourcommons.ca/conten ··· 06-e.pdf

Also, let us look at these words from the original release:
The Heritage committee has spent more than a year studying Canada’s media industry, in which companies are steadily losing advertising revenue and market shares to Facebook, Netflix, Google and other international giants.

These words are the exact same words used by Bell in their Relevant Ad Program filing (RAP) at the CRTC. This was the filing where Bell wanted to take and use peoples private and sensitive personal information to targets them with ads, and also share this info with others.

So to answer your question:
Advertising and Spam. It isn't TV programs as you are thinking. It is the likes of Bell Media's advertising arm.

Oh.
It's advertising at a national level.

Who owns 2 FM & 2 AM english/french-language station and a local TV station in every single Top 30 canadian markets ? The usual suspects : Bell Media, Corus Media (Shaw), Rogers Media, and Videotron (TV only)... The remaining 10 canadian markets are either affiliates, independent or shut down as non-profitable.

Who doesn't run national advertisements ? Independent stations. Who needs money the most ? Independent operators.

I'm sure you guys who supported that internet tax will be happy to learn were about to collectively bail Robelhaw out indirectly instead of the ones who needs it the most.

What they're saying is stop paying these actors so much money, especially in TV series.

I remember at some point during his career playing Crockett in Miami Vice, Don Johnson was earning $40,000 per episode. He was the highest paid actor in a TV series ever.

This equals about $80,000 today. However, today top paid actors are making over $1,000,000 per episode.

If you have 200 people 'scraping' by, it's because the actors are taking too much. Forcing Canadians to pay more, in the form of taxes, doesn't change things for the ones scraping by. It only boosts the income of the actors and the executives and any other high rankers in the industry.

No thank-you.

If we knew that that money was going to a guy earning $15/hour to set off explosions, then fine. But that's not what is going to happen.

I used the above example because I worked with a guy that used to work in the movie industry as an explosion expert. He worked with all sorts of top-rate actors/actresses. But his income sucked.

Not only that, many of the actors were very weird, he had one actor (won't name him) following him around on set bugging to set off bombs. Wouldn't leave him alone. In movies, you wouldn't know that the guy was a fruitcake. But off screen, he had some serious issues. But he was making millions...

I said the exact same thing when Rogers signed a $5.2 billion contract with the NHL. Those hockey players are paid way too much, millions, just to pass the puck on the ice. Why would I want to pay 500$ for a seat to freeze for 3 hours at the arena, when Sportsnet/TSN received 5$ per subscriber per month to produce and broadcast the game with a better view ? Hey, lower their salaries, seats and sports channels may cost way less.Advertisers spend a lot more money for a 30-secs spot for the top-rated shows, while specialty channels pay top money for exclusive syndicated reruns which sometimes pulls in more ratings than cable originals. Example :
»tvbythenumbers.zap2it.co ··· -2-2017/
That week, live basketball was very good, followed by 4 TBBT episodes on TBS, 2x Family Guy + 3x Bob's Burgers + 4x American Dad on Adult Swim... That's a lot of money flow going in. Add on-demand platforms such as Netflix or Hulu. Add international sales : Canadian simulcast, UK, Australia, dubbed version in France, Spain, etc. Should top actors get compensation or should the production company keep all that money instead ?

Don't get me started on CBC/Radio-Canada. How exactly are they spending their $1 billion from-taxpayer annual budget ? What's the salary of the CEO and each of top management in Toronto and Montreal ?

It will take some time but cord-cutting may eventually force that to happen.

The stock markets aren't the only thing that need market corrections.

No Canadian production company is paying any actor millions. The Canadian companies involved in the tv/movie industry are mostly support services. Look at the obvious differences in production values between a Canadian show and an American one.

What's your point? Cancon goes to productions in Canada. Lots of big name movies and shows are produced in Canada that receive cancon funding that do pay Actors/producers/directors huge sums of money.

Anything that says in the credits, with special thanks to the government of Canada, along with whatever provincial government has received funding.