Netflix Canada Sets Record Straight About $500M Investment

Netflix Inc. offered more points of interest about the streaming company’s intends to burn through $500 million on making Canadian content, as it defended its tax status in Canada.

The creator of Emmy-winning shows, for example, House of Cards and Black Mirror reported a month ago it was in chats with the Canadian government about setting up a committed pool of assets to deliver Canadian stories and afterward broadcast them in Canada and to different markets far and wide.

Those discussions in the long run diverted into a dedication from the company to burn through $500 million on motion pictures and television shows created in Canada, both in English and in French, throughout the following five years. It would likewise set up the company’s first lasting production presence outside of the U.S.

“We have invested in Canada because Canadians make great global stories,” Netflix said Tuesday. “That says more about the quality and strength of Canadian content, talent and crew than a commitment of any dollar amount.”

The company likewise said it will spend an extra $25 million on what it calls “market development activities,” funds it will use “to host pitch days, recruitment events, and support local cultural events to ensure Netflix Canada reaches vibrant Canadian production communities, including the French-language community in Quebec.”

Spending $500 million would speak to a noteworthy sense of duty regarding Canadian content producers. Yet, ensuring the company adheres to its assertion will be no simple assignment, as Ottawa doesn’t have a similar kind of weapons accessible as it does when managing customary broadcasters, whose licenses can be suspended.

Instructor Irene Berkowitz, the FCAD Cultural Policy Fellow at Ryerson University in Toronto, says Netflix isn’t held to an indistinguishable standards from broadcasters.

Rules governing content creation have to catch up with the times, she said in an interview. “If they are getting great content, they will continue to spend and stay,” she said.

“When this era of disruption settles down, what Canadian producers are going to have is the same business model that Hollywood has had for 100 years: Make great content [and] exploit it globally.”

The company likewise isn’t attempting to usurp any of their advantages, either.

“Internet-native, on-demand services like Netflix are consumer-driven and operate on the open internet,” the company said.

“We don’t use public property like broadcast spectrum or rights of way, and we don’t receive the regulatory protections and benefits that broadcasters get (and, by the way, we’re not asking for them).”

The company may not charge its Canadian customers sales tax, but rather it will in any case be making its services more costly in Canada.

Netflix as of late told its current customers in an email that it would bring costs up in late October and early November of 2017. The company will charge $8.99 a month for the basic service in standard definition on one gadget at any given moment, $10.99 for superior quality on two gadgets at any given moment, and $13.99 a month for ultra high definition on four screens in the meantime.

The low and middle packages went up by $1, while the premium packages went up by $2 a month.

“The recent price increase has nothing to do with our investment or commitments,” Netflix said. “That price increase was planned a long time ago.”