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Comment by sovietmudkipz | Hacker News Reader

I fail to see how Netflix is an example of cultural imperialism. Netflix is just a service that packages up Americana to sell around the world. It goes through the regular marketing channels, and it’s ultimately up to the consumer if they purchase a subscription or not. It’s a choice not a mandate.

I’m confused by the imperialist rhetoric in this article. I would think the more obvious narrative would be “if people buy Netflix they would be less willing to buy Canadian entertainment.” An economic argument, a numbers thing. Why evoke thought of imperialist expansion and the negative aspects therein?

I don’t understand the frame of mind that produces these types of utterances. To me, it seems silly to persuade this way.

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Netflix is just a service that packages up Americana to sell around the world.

And in so doing, drowns out local culture. The CBC has the production of Canadian cultural content (CanCon) as part of its mandate. Why must everyone in the world watch American TV? Wouldn't it ultimately be better if every culture produced their own content and then we could maintain some local identity?

The word imperialism is not being used lightly, here. TV has an enormous impact on a society. It influences how people think, which in turn can influence their politics.

No one is limiting what you can watch on CBC or any other Canadian content platform, why should I be locked into watching locally produced content I don't resonate with online?

Regulating media consumption online, a traditionally global marketplace, to your national content is just a terrible idea in every sense.

Netflix isn't really "online". Yes, it uses the internet as its transport layer. But it in all other respects is a closed content delivery platform, akin to a cable subscription but with the convenience of on-demand rather than traditionally scheduled broadcast TV.

The CBC has rightly identified this. They know that most people get Netflix by plugging a box into their TV, just as they used to with a cable box. The CBC is not proposing the regulation of the web, it's proposing regulation of a platform that is essentially cable delivered over a different pipe.

Edit: moreover, the content that is on Netflix isn't open like the web, it's closed content protected by regional distribution contracts.

How would you regulate Netflix then? The CRTC mandates that 55% of broadcasted content in Canada through traditional means is Canadian based content, with on demand streaming services I can't possibly see a healthy way to regulate this.

What about YouTube premium? They offer content more akin to traditional television, and it's very much American dominated. Is that "not really 'online'" either? Does it need the same manner of regulation that it seems they're looking to impose on Netflix?

Both Netflix and YouTube have far more content than what is promoted up front to every user. The regulation need not insist that 55% of the content archives be Canadian (that would be absurd). The regulation could focus on what content is featured on the home page.

So nobody need fear their favourite Netflix show being taken away. This would only affect what users see when they first sit down to watch. That would have a powerful effect. I think it would be enough to keep Canadian shows going so that Canadian culture can be maintained in a distinct form.

A large fraction of Netflix content is not produced in the US. At the core it’s an economic not a cultural argument. The issue is not the American nature of content but rather competing with high quality forein content.

That just makes the cultural argument stronger if now its not just the USA sending holy wood but now the entire world.

If it’s the entire world, then Netflix is just a platform and Canada can easily export content on Netflix. Making the imperialist argument meaningless.

Damn, those imperialist bulk cargo ships...

I wonder if it would actually be better for the world to keep moving towards a common culture, assuming that culture is open enough to absorb the best parts of other cultures. There's a sense amongst the Canadian cultural elite that Canadian culture needs to be protected from American cultural imperialism, when really they're trying to preserve what's left of Britishness (at least in anglo Canada).

>Wouldn't it ultimately be better if every culture produced their own content and then we could maintain some local identity?

Many cultures do produce their own content, but it's often less entertaining than American content due to budget constraints, censorship restrictions or other government interference.

I think seeing at this as cultural imperialism is incorrect - it might be so if the US were somehow forcing other countries to watch American content, or if Netflix only served American content, but neither of those are the case. This just a matter of commerce in a global marketplace.

What would be better is people having a choice, not being kept in a government-enforced media cocoon in order to keep foreign influence from affecting their cultural identity.

Yet at the same time the thing my kids love watching the most on Netflix is Paw Patrol, a animated commercial to sell dog toys, produced in: Canada (we live in Europe btw).

So I don't think the problem is Netflix draining out local culture with foreign ones.

Can't people still choose though? In that sense there’s no “must”. Those who want to watch Canadian cultural content can freely do so, and the same is valid for those who prefer Netflix.

Why shouldn’t everyone in the world have the choice of watching American tv?

The question is not whether people can choose; people can always choose. The issue is what choices you give to people and in what prominence they're placed. Burying a show in the archives is different from featuring it on the front page. Under what criteria should it appear on the front page? If it's only popularity, that'll bias in favour of American shows, since the US has 10x the population of Canada.

If Canadian shows are on the front page, they have a much better chance of getting views and thus surviving, so that people have a choice to keep watching. Canadians can and will find out about the most popular American shows through other media channels, so why do those shows also need to be on the front page?

You say people can always choose and on the next phrase argue for limiting that choice...

I don’t know to which front page you’re referring but honestly the comments from the CBC head quoted in the article sound like those of a bureaucrat who’s seeing her power to influence what Canadians should watch being diminished by Netflix’s presence, and being angry about it.

Not all colonialism is by the sword or gun. For the ancient Romans it was quite common for them to just be luring in people in to their society which would mostly erase traditions within a generation or two.

If you look at these kinds situations through a purely economic lens, you won't be able to even identify cultural imperialism where it's quite obviously occurring.

Netflix is just a service that packages up Americana to sell around the world.

Except it really isn't. Netflix (at least in Europe) has shows and movies from all over the world. Thanks to Netflix I've discovered shows from all over the place and I'd venture that less than 50% of my Netflix viewing is "Americana".

“Netflix is just a service that packages up Americana to sell around the world.”

That just literally is the definition of cultural imperialism. If imperialism involves rule by violence, it’s just imperialism, and doesn’t take much culture.

I have no idea if a McDonalds on every street corner is actually bad. As every single commenter in this thread independently discovered, people are free to make these decisions, and sometimes there is a reason why a local speciality stayed local.

But you should really tackle the actual argument being made.

Well, "cultural imperialism" is the answer to "so what if american companies outcompete native Canadian entertainment?" i.e. it's a response to a response to your more obvious narrative.

Of course, it's not a very good argument for persuading the general public as most people don't know what cultural imperialism means.

Not only that, but Netflix offers content from non-US based producers, it's enabling the sharing of creative content from all over the globe not just American produced content.

The CRTC (Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission) requires that 55% of content broadcasted yearly be of Canadian origin. This just seems like the starting stage of trying to regulate online content in the same manner.

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