Well, this is very provocative.
You know, we've heard over the last few years, when people have come in, a lot of kicks at YouTube: “Oh, YouTube; it's people watching videos of their cat.” Obviously people really are shocked and horrified at what YouTube did. It changed.... It is television. My kids don't have televisions. They wouldn't think to buy a television if it was the last thing in the store available. They're on YouTube. But they're on YouTube through a wide variety of elements, and they're not watching people's cats flushing the toilet. They're watching content, because content is still king.
I'm interested in your experience with the CMF, because, you know, what is the role of the Canadian government? What is the role of our federal institutions? We created some really top-notch content creators. Take the National Film Board; to me, this is still one of the great film laboratories of the world. There's Radio-Canada. We created great content.
But it seemed over the years that the idea was that we had to create content because we had to make sure that Canadians didn't disappear. Then we had to create content so that the broadcasters didn't disappear. It was like culture became a kind of corporate welfare state. There seemed to be this mentality.
Now I'm looking at the possibilities that are there from the digital realm. But still, even with the Canadian Media Fund being updated, the vast majority is tied to the fact that you have to have a broadcaster, and the broadcaster is going to want 12 years' worth of rights, and he might show it or he might not show it. It's going to be a huge investment because you're not going to run a pilot unless there's a whack of dough there.
Meanwhile, there is this whole other world out there, where we could start getting buzz and hype and things could start happening. I'm interested that you've found the experimental stream full of great ideas. It seems to me odd; it seems that we would say, okay, the experimental stream is over there, it's not the serious stuff, whereas I actually wonder if that's where the real serious stuff is going to be created.
Would you suggest that we actually open up this Canadian Media Fund so that more funding is available to just create content, and then worry about where it goes as secondary to the creation of content, and allow perhaps more of this just to get out there online?