TORONTO, January 17, 2024 — The Canadian Media Producers Association today joined media production organizations from around the world, releasing a shared set of foundational principles that call on local governments to regulate global streaming platforms, to safeguard national media production sectors and promote a vibrant global screen industry.

Representing tens of thousands of companies that work across the global screen sector, the group’s foundational principles underscore the cultural and economic importance of local, independent storytelling. It further calls on national governments to recognize domestic production industries as strategic national assets, to be cherished and protected.

“This is about ensuring local stories are discovered, developed and told on screen, and not lost to a massive, singular global content industry,” said Reynolds Mastin, President and CEO, CMPA.

“The number of organizations from around the world that have signed on to this initiative is a vivid demonstration that the issues faced by independent producers here in Canada, are also confronting domestic producers in numerous other countries,” added Mastin.

“On the one hand this underscores the significant scope of the challenges faced by domestic production sectors around the world, but on the other it provides a hopeful path forward; 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.”

Together we represent thousands of screen industry businesses and share a commitment to securing regulation from our respective governments that will ensure that our industry continues to both be sustainable and maintains our nation’s cultural sovereignty.

To help achieve this, government regulation of digital streaming platforms should be guided by the following principles:

• Local content has both significant cultural and economic importance and is a strategic national asset.
• Local audiences should have access to a broad range of new local stories across all the platforms they are using.
• 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.
• To meet audience expectations, there is a need to maintain and support a healthy screen sector (development, production (including post-production), distribution), that delivers employment, economic activity, industry upskilling, exports, and growth opportunities.
• 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.
• Independent screen businesses (SMEs) are critical to achieving this cultural and economic objective.
• There is significant scope for growth in existing levels of production, investment, employment, commissioned content hours and exports, provided fit for purpose regulation, that protects local cultural assets, is in place.
• 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.
• 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.

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ABOUT THE CMPA

This statement is supported by:

• AECINE – Asociación de productoras de Cine Independiente (Spain)
• Animation in Europe (Europe)
• AnimFrance (France)
• APA – Associazione Produttori Audiovisivi (Italy)
• APCA – Associação Producers Cinema Audiovisual (Portugal)
• APFC – Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada (Canada)
• APIT – Associação de Produtores Independentes de Televisão (Portugal)
• AQPM – Association québécoise de la production médiatique (Canada)
• CEPI – European Audiovisual Production Association (EU)
• CMPA – Canadian Media Producers Association (Canada)
• EPC – The European Producers Club (EU)
• FIPCA – Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers (LatAM)
• FPS – Association of Slovene Film Producers (Slovenia)
• PATE – Asociación de Productores Audiovisual Independientes (Spain)
• Produzentenverband (Germany)
• SPA – Screen Producers Australia (AU)
• SPADA – The Screen Production and Development Association (NZ)
• SPI – Screen Producers Ireland (Ireland)
• UPFF+ – Union of Francophone Producers of Films & Series (Belgium)
• USPA – Union Syndicale de la Production Audiovisuelle (EU)

The Canadian Media Producers Association is the national advocacy organization for independent producers, representing hundreds of companies engaged in the development, production, and distribution of English-language content made for television, cinema, and digital media channels. For 75 years, the CMPA has worked to promote the continued success of the Canadian production sector and to ensure a bright future for the diverse content made by our members for both domestic and international audiences. cmpa.ca

For more information:

Gamiela Fereg
Senior Manager, Media Relations & Communications, CMPA
gamiela.fereg@cmpa.ca