DGC LAUDS YALE PANEL FINDING ON STREAMING SERVICES
Recommendations would require foreign services operating in Canada to invest in original Canadian programming

Ottawa – The Directors Guild of Canada hailed the key findings of the government’s Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel, urging that global streaming services operating in Canada be brought immediately under the Broadcasting Act and required to contribute to the creation of original Canadian programming.

“We’d like to thank Ms. Yale and the entire panel for 18 months of hard work,” said DGC President Tim Southam. “Modernizing the rules for our broadcasting system, including all players in the mix to contribute, could mean the difference between watching Canadian voices disappear from our cultural landscape, or securing a future for our industry and our stories for decades to come.”

The DGC also congratulated the expert panel on their recommendations to expand the mandate of the CRTC and require that dramatic and documentary productions made with public funds (or moneys contributed to Certified Independent Production Funds) be required to engage Canadian creators in all key creative roles.

“People will debate the details of this report, but a few key points are clear” Southam added. “Even in a changing landscape, our creators and key cultural institutions like the CBC, CMF and Telefilm need proper funding and Canadian creators need to be telling Canadian stories.”