Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams presents Prime Minister Mark Carney with a fleece from the show on the red carpet at a gala in Ottawa on Jan. 29.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
The head of the production company behind the hit hockey-romance series Heated Rivalry says he is holding off sending Prime Minister Mark Carney his own Team Canada-style fleece jacket, worn by one of the show’s lead characters, until the future of Ottawa’s online streaming law is clear and enacted “for real.”
The law, which would make foreign streaming services including Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime financially support Canada’s film, TV and music industries alongside Canada’s broadcasters, has been branded a trade irritant by Washington and a potential issue in United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement renegotiations.
Earlier this month, Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller asked the regulator implementing the Online Streaming Act to review its decision to make the streamers pay 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to support Canada’s cultural industries.
To help fill the funding gap, Mr. Miller said the government would inject $600-million a year into the sector.
The minister is also preparing a policy direction to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) asking it recalibrate how funds from foreign streamers would be allocated, after a number of court cases by streaming companies. The policy changes would mean the foreign streamers would not have to support local Canadian news or niche broadcasters such as the Indigenous broadcaster APTN.
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Brendan Brady, CEO and executive producer at Accent Aigu Entertainment, which produces Heated Rivalry, said the annual $600-million, though welcome, is “a Band-Aid” that would only be guaranteed while the current government remains in power.
“While I appreciate the $600-million, that it will help, it is a Band-Aid, and we need something that is going to have teeth,” and support Canada’s cultural sector in the long term, he said.
“I just want them to keep their elbows up as they do their best to try and figure out how we can preserve our cultural sovereignty,” he added in an interview.
In January, Mr. Brady met Mr. Carney with Jacob Tierney, the hit show’s writer, director and executive producer, and cast members at a gathering of film and TV production companies from across Canada.
At the event organized by the Canadian Media Producers Association, the Prime Minister shared a moment on the red carpet with Hudson Williams, one of the stars of the show. Mr. Carney tried on the white Team Canada fleece jacket Mr. Williams’ character Shane Hollander had worn, declaring: “This is true soft power.”
Mr. Brady said the Prime Minister got to see “how an LGBTQ story could take the world by storm.”
The show, made with Bell Media for Crave, has been a huge commercial success, garnering about 10 million viewers per episode in the U.S., Mr. Brady said. It has been sold in countries around the world, including Mongolia. This summer, Heated Rivalry will begin shooting a second season at locations in Ontario and Quebec.
Mark Carney strikes a pose with Hudson Williams on the red carpet at the Prime Time screen and media industry conference gala.PATRICK DOYLE/The Canadian Press
Mr. Brady said Mr. Carney “seemed to really have, what I believe he called, a bromance with Hudson, and especially getting to wear the fleece that so catapulted into the zeitgeist.”
“We actually have one of those fleeces on hold for him that we want to send to him. But obviously I think we’re waiting to see how this goes and making sure that everything gets cleared up for the Online Streaming Act to be enacted for real for us, so we might just be holding off on that,” Mr. Brady said.
“If we’re on pause with the government, then the fleece is on pause until we know.”
Alisson Lévesque, spokesperson for Mr. Miller, said the government intends to “move quickly to ensure stability and predictability.”
“We intend to develop a policy direction that takes into account affordability for Canadians, while providing greater flexibility for those contributing to the broadcasting,” she said in a statement.
Streaming companies such as Netflix will still be required to inject funds into Canada’s cultural industries under the act, but it is not yet clear how much.
Kyle Irving, chair of the CMPA, said there was also no clarity yet on how the promised $600-million a year would be allocated.
That figure is far less than the amount streamers would have had to collectively pay each year based on 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues, as the CRTC had determined before Mr. Miller’s intervention, he said.
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He said it is projected that foreign platforms would earn between $5-billion and $6-billion in Canada this year, meaning they would have had to pay between $750-million and $900-million toward Canada’s cultural industries.
Mr. Irving said Canadian film and TV is experiencing a golden age, and the industry currently generates nearly $12-billion toward Canada’s GDP and employs more than 180,000 people.
Big Canadian stars, including Seth Rogen, are returning from the U.S. to make productions here, he added.
“There’s a return to Canada that is very exciting happening right now. And if we can continue to move the Online Streaming Act forward, and we can put these new resources in place for Canadian content creators, I think you’re going to see more of them staying,” he said.
“I think you’re going to see more of them coming home, and I think you’re going to see what could be the greatest time in Canadian content creation ever.”
He said the Online Streaming Act would incentivize streamers to share intellectual property ownership with Canadian production partners, and ensure key creative positions are held by Canadians.
“What this comes down to is sovereignty, not only cultural sovereignty, but economic sovereignty,” Mr. Irving added. “The government has said that we are moving away from our dependence and reliance on the Americans for our economy to succeed.”
“This is a great example of us becoming factory owners and workers – versus factory workers.”