The Motion Picture Association-Canada, representing Disney, Netflix and other streamers, is fighting a proposed 5% tax on revenue generated in the country that would be used to finance local news.
I believe it's more than time we start forcing multinational corporations to pay taxes based on where they made their revenue and not based on where their headquarter is established.
It's mildly insulting how cheap some people can be bought for. Like a few grand "contributions" from a multi billion dollar company is enough? Come on, have some self respect.
Disney will just cry and whine about how their streaming service isn't making enough money.
And that's their problem. Not ours.
Their failure to develop a business strategy shouldn't mean that the rest of the world should pay for it. Netflix made money back when they were the de facto streaming service, maybe the old model of vertically integrated production & distribution doesn't work any more, and maybe, just maybe, they should try catering to consumers who just want a one-stop shop , instead of trying to muscle in on every segment of the supply chain?
As a society, we should never have let content producers and content distributors merge. And while we can't do anything about Disney in Canada, we could, eg, force Bell to turn back time and split into it's network and production businesses. Same for Rogers. Same for Shaw and so forth.
Using the first numbers I found Canada is ~7% of Netflix' total subscriber count, and less than 1/3 the number of subscribers as the US. They could shut off service to Canada for a month until people start burning down service Canada locations and the tax gets dropped.
until people start burning down service Canada locations
Maybe a decade ago when Netflix was actually highly-regarded and held a near-monopoly on streaming video.
Today with the massive balkanisation of streaming video, and with Netflix developing a reputation for cancelling good shows and producing poor-quality adaptations? I think most people would post a couple of angry Facebook comments and then move on.
The lack of availability of legal channels to obtain media does not generally stop the availability of said media to the average consumer, especially in a country with high tech permeance.
Yeah Netflix just kicked me off their service last month by completely discontinuing the service level I was willing to pay for, and then had the audacity to send me 4 follow up emails asking if I'd "changed my mind". I would still be subscribed to Netflix if it wasn't for (checks notes) Netflix.
The days of Netflix valuing their customers are over. Welcome to enshittification.
Will it? Facebook/instagram did a similar thing in response to the Online News Act by banning any Canadian news links and in my experience people blamed facebook not the government
A pirated movie can be played on any device, it can be backed up to protect against loss, it lets you choose the quality and file size, it generally comes with more options for audio and subtitle language, and you only pay for it once in the form of technical services (bandwidth through your ISP, access to a VPN, access to other private services).
Conversely Netflix offers you access to a movie on a limited number of devices, they can remove your access to that movie at any time, regardless of the settings you have chosen they can reduce the quality of a movie at any time, there is usually only one option for audio/subtitles, and you pay every month regardless of your usage of the service.
If given the two option NO international corporation would ever choose Netflix, why should consumers?