Paul Stenhouse: Motion Picture Association of Canada ask courts to ditch local news funding rule, Amazon breaks into luxury department store game

Netflix, Paramount ask Canadian courts to ditch local news funding rule 

The new 5% tax —called the Online Streaming Act— which is to go into effect on September 1 is targeted at streaming services who pull in more than C$25m and aren't affiliated with domestic broadcasters. The expected $200m in funds will go towards creating local content, including supporting Black and Indigenous creators.  

The Motion Picture Association of Canada, who represent studios including Netflix, Paramount & Disney, say they support the law, but there's also a component to fund local news content which they have asked the courts to strike out. They say this news content mandate is "unreasonable" and "is neither appropriate in consideration of the nature of the services they provide, nor equitable.” 

 

Amazon has got into the luxury department store game 

The parent of Saks Fifth Avenue, in a partnership with Amazon, will buy its rival department store chain Neiman Marcus in a US$2.65 billion deal. Amazon will take a minority stake in the new company, called Saks Global, and will provide technology and logistical expertise, according to the Wall Street Journal said. Salesforce is also part of the deal - which is a departure from their usual investments in software startups. Commentators say the luxury market is an area Amazon has been struggling to break into. 

 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from Newstalks AEDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Twenty two minutes too eleven on Newstalks, there'd be Netflix
and Paramount have asked Canadian courts to ditch a local
news funding rule. Now this rule is a little bit
different to the one that's being pursued by the government here,
but it could have big implications for news producers in Canada.
Our texpert Paul Steinhous is here with the details.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Hey Paul, Yeah, good morning Jack. It's a timely conversation,
isn't it, with the closure of news Hub. And it's
a really interesting one because it's called the Online Streaming
Act and it's in Canada, and they are basically going
after the biggest streaming services, those who pull in more
than twenty five million dollars Canadian worth of revenue and

(00:53):
who aren't affiliated with the domestic broadcasters, so they're the
real Netflixes of the world, the big internationals. Sure, and
they're going to take They're going to put five percent
tax on that revenue, which is a pretty large number.
They think they're going to pull in about two hundred
million dollars in funding, which they are then going to
go and put into what I assume is like in
New Zealand on a type fund, they're going to go

(01:14):
towards creating local content, supporting black and Indigenous creators. All
of this sounds good, and here's where it's weird. The
Motion Picture Association of Canada actually kind of says that
it's okay. They're kind of on board with it, and
I guess it's because they're probably going to be creating
content that could potentially end up on one of their services, right.
But what they're here, yeah, but what they're not interested

(01:36):
in is a component of that law where they need
to fund local news. Interesting, so about one point five
percent is actually of is going to be going to
local news production. And these studios are saying that this
news content mandate is unreasonable. That's the word they use.
They said, it's neither appropriate in consideration of the nature

(01:56):
of the services they provide, nor equitable. So what they're
really saying is that, hey, we're happy to maybe think
about helping out if it's going to be entertainment, but
if it's some that we're not going to put on
our service, don't really want to do it. And they've
gone to the court to say strike it out because
this is supposed to go into law September one.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Well, look here's the thing. It's you know, I'm sure
people would say, you have on that. Yeah, if I
put on. If I try and look at this critically,
you can see why they Netflix is actually, you know
what we don't. We're not competing with news. We're not
sucking people away from news. We're not hoovering up that
information like maybe Google and Meta are doing with their models.

(02:41):
We're quite different. We're just providing entertainment. And I think
there's probably a reasonable argument.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
To be made. But I think that the big piece
that is probably the the core of this argument is
that news organizations don't typically outside of usually morning shows
in most parts of the world, don't typically make a
lot of money, and so they're actually like that content's
like the lost Leader, right, So I think, how else

(03:05):
are you going to fund new I actually think it's
quite an interesting kind of danced I've done. I really
like as well that they're targeting the big streamers and
not yet you know, the new kid on the not
the niche ones, but they've kind of.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
Gone to be So Amazon is getting into the luxury
department store game by pairing up with Sex fifth Avenue.

Speaker 3 (03:27):
This was a real surprise. Sex fifth Avenue is going
to be buying Neman markets. They've been competitors for years
and years. There's been a lot of consolidation in the
luxury space. The number of department store brands is dwindled.
In fact, one of the department stores period have. I
guess I've dwindled here in the States. But what was
really surprising to me was the line that said the
parent of Sex for Ab is in partnership with Amazon.

(03:49):
I thought, that's interesting. That's spending two point sixty five billion, right,
So effectively Amazon's buying into the parent company of SAX
together that they're buying Neman Marcus. And then even more
bizarre is that they've got sales Force as part of
this deal too. Like they are a very minor state,
but they don't usually do anything outside of sort of

(04:09):
software startups and things that are related to customer relationship
management world. So that was really surprising. But Amazon's Mijorready
stake is going to come with technology and logistical expertise.
Now that's interesting, right, because they've now basically put a
value on what they do and are bringing that into

(04:30):
the business deal. And I think another thing that kind
of underscored for me just how important the online market
is in this new venture is that the guy who
runs the online store for SAX, he's going to be
the CEO of this new combined company called sex Global.
So it's almost like they're saying goodbye in person. But
at the same time, in the press release, they actually

(04:52):
said they were most interested in this company because of
their large footprint, because they do believe that when you're
in the luxury market, it's a little different to when
you're just buying a T shirt with nine ninety nine,
you actually want a partner, the sales associate. You want
them to know what they're talking about, and chances are
you probably want to feel it, touch it, and maybe

(05:13):
try it on before you go and spend literally thousands
of dollars on some of these items. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Fair cool, No, it'd be very interesting. Watch the space.
Thank you, Paul. That's our texpert. Paul's Steenhouse seventeen to eleven,
Non News Talks EDB.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
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