This is playing the Canadian film, One Week. It is an excellent film. We're quite proud of it. Corus helped to finance this film.
I bought it from iTunes last night in a hotel just down the street, and I was able to download it to this device in just a few minutes. The new Apple TV device referred to in today's Globe and Mail story is available at the mall down the street and can make the Internet experience happen easily on anyone's home TV. I don't necessarily want to endorse the Apple TV, but I encourage you to have a look at it. You just plug it in and—wow!— it's all there on your set.
Companies such as Apple and Google are rapidly working to invade the traditional regulated TV markets. None of these services are required to share their space with Canadian players or to carry Canadian content that meets Canadian standards.
Corus big six number two: increase the probability of success of the Canadian media industry by encouraging the creation of larger and stronger enterprises.
Corus is a significant player in the Canadian market, but on a global scale we are very small. The chart that we have included illustrates market capitalization of some companies. The interesting thing is that on the left side, the new media players such as Google, which owns YouTube, which I'm sure you've all used, and Apple, which I've already referred to, dwarf even a traditional media Goliath such Disney. Google and Apple are seven times larger than even BCE, which is our largest media company in Canada. Netflix, which made a lot of noise a few weeks ago when it announced its incursion into Canada, has a market cap of $9 billion, which is the same as Corus, Astral, and Quebecor combined.
This financial power—and you've heard it from the producers—gives them the resources to innovate, to buy content, and to entice away our talent. For example, Google Inc. spent roughly U.S. $1.5 billion on research and development in 2007, and that number has increased over the last couple of years. This amount is greater than the revenue last year of the entire Canadian radio industry. We must all recognize that the scale problem is worse in the digital realm than it was in traditional broadcasting. This makes it very challenging to fully participate in a new media world.
To participate in digital markets, Corus must also address the critical issue of the management of digital rights. We need to make huge investments in technology to attract and protect our rights and in training our employees to use it. In this regard, we invite the committee to visit Corus Quay in Toronto, where you will see a world-leading technology facility, which I can report cost us about nine figures to build.
Indeed, our media environment is changing. The members of the committee know that. However, you must also understand that your ability to regulate and protect the domestic market is limited. We need to come up with a new mix of incentives, supports, and protections to ensure a continued vibrant Canadian presence. We need scale to maintain the R and D and to make the content that will help us to compete even here at home. To achieve this scale, we will need to redefine our policy bias against vertical integration. We can use other policy tools to ensure diversity and access for many voices.
What are these tools? At this point, we'll simply say that we recommended to the digital economy process that a panel of experts be formed to examine these and other issues.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, those are our submissions, and we look forward to your questions.
