Canada’s heritage minister needs a better understanding of Canada’s heritage. Another of the junior grade ministers in the Trudeau cabinet, Mélanie Joly, defended Netflix last week. It was a betrayal of Canadian actors, production capabilities and our French-speaking citizens as well as a allowing a leach to defy Canadian broadcast and tax rules.
Joly welcomed Netflix’s promise of spending $500,000 over the next five years. The problem with the promise is that if Netflix is really reaching the estimated audience it is purported to have in Canada, the $100,000 per year is just small change.
The ridiculous part of Netflix is that even if it only costs $10 per month, you are paying much more for the bandwidth of your Internet service to provide decent streaming video.
And what do you really get for your $10? Every time I examine Netflix for content of interest, I find little to recommend it. Friends who use it tell me that the first season of “The Crown” was absolutely excellent. That is all very nice for the few monarchists among us who believe in the travesty of royals.
There was some amusement among those who had seen the original “House of Cards” which was British. They say the American model is not quite as good. The wife and I are watching the American product now on commercial television and I find I appreciate the political manipulation techniques the show displays, while the wife is bored by that aspect.
But the more serious problem are the few people who like the French-language “Marseilles” which was made for the market in France. Quebec-based reviewers are turning up their noses.
Maybe people are caught up by the novelty of Netflix but dollar for dollar, we are getting far more bang for our loonie from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The Corp gives us believable news, great sports and original Canadian programming. How can you expect anything from Netflix?
And even if there are two or three good shows among the dross offered by Netflix, it does not make sense in a world used to commercial television. The picture quality is still not there. And let’s face it, without commercials, when do you know when it is time to go to the bathroom?
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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