Netflix won't play Santa

If Netflix is ​​the most complacent Internet giant, it has no intention of playing Santa Claus.

However, he can afford it. This year, the small email distribution company founded by Reed Hastings and Mark Randolph in 1997 will reach $35 billion in sales. By comparison, it is seven times the city of Montreal's annual budget. When you have that much money and 260 million subscribers worldwide, you can get away with anything.

This week, Reed Hastings raised $5 billion for 10 years of airing the weekly show raw From World Wrestling Entertainment. This series is well known to wrestling fans and dates back to the 17th century^H It showcases and showcases wrestlers who make their sport look “real.” CM Punk (real name Jack Brooks) was made for him raw Another return to the scene despite being 45 years old. Starting next January, fans will be able to see it raw on Netflix for as long as they want as well as other World Wrestling specials.

But what about Netflix and other internet giants contributing to our television, as Ottawa's new law requires? So far, nothing concrete has emerged, and the CRTC, which should set regulations and guidelines, has not spoken much about the issue.

good well

As soon as we started discussing the contribution of American giants to our streaming ecosystem, Netflix showed a certain amount of good faith. In 2017, Mélanie Joly, then Heritage Minister, returned from California with in her bag a “signed” promise from Netflix that committed to spending $500 million in Canada over five years. We never saw the signed promise, but in any case, Netflix spent more than $500 million in the country from 2017 to 2023.

The truth is that only a small percentage of the amount was allocated to the original Canadian production and even less than that to the French-language production. in my knowldge, Until the decline It is the only feature film we owe to Netflix in Quebec.

Just crumbs

If our requirements for a film or series to be declared “Canadian” and become eligible for tax credits and other usual benefits do not change, this feature film will likely remain the only one in its category for a long time to come. Netflix has bought some comedy shows and spent a few tens of thousands of dollars on film, TV and comedy communities, as well as private schools, but they are just crumbs falling off a well-stocked table.

Last October, Netflix hired Ginette Viens to sort through projects it was inundated with hopeful producers in Quebec. Madame Viens has extensive experience. She was a Vice President at Pixcom and at QMI after serving as General Creative Director and Diversity Director at TVA. Since Netflix has only been using its services for six months, one might wonder if its role is not limited to weeding out too many projects rather than discovering some rare gems that would allow Netflix to make a real contribution to our audiovisual repertoire. We'll know in the coming months.