Canada’s broadcasting regulator wants to force streaming giants to dedicate a portion of their profit to prop up struggling Canadian legacy media.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced it would require online streaming services like Netflix to contribute 5% of Canadian revenue to support Canada’s domestic broadcasting system.
The CRTC called the decision a “major step forward in the implementation of the Online Streaming Act” in a press release on Tuesday.
“Today’s decision will help ensure that online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content,” said CRTC chairperson and chief executive officer Vicky Eatrides.
“The CRTC will continue to move quickly, listen carefully, and take action as we implement the new legislation.”
The Online Steaming Act received Royal Assent on Apr. 27 and the CRTC was tasked with modernizing Canada’s broadcasting framework in relation to the new legislation.
Primarily, it set out to decide how to ensure online streaming services would be forced to contribute financially to domestic broadcasting, as well as produce Canadian and Indigenous content.
After conducting public consultations and a three-week public hearing, the CRTC decided to require online streaming services to contribute 5% of their Canadian revenues.
“These obligations will start in the 2024-2025 broadcast year and will provide an estimated $200 million per year in new funding,” reads the release.
“The funding will be directed to areas of immediate need in the Canadian broadcasting system, such as local news on radio and television, French-language content, Indigenous content, and content created by and for equity-deserving communities, official language minority communities, and Canadians of diverse backgrounds.”
The CRTC said that online streaming services will also be granted “some flexibility” in where they direct “parts of their contributions” exactly, within Canadian television content.“
As a quasi-judicial tribunal, the CRTC will continue to balance consulting widely with moving quickly to build the new regulatory framework,” the release continued.
The CRTC also announced that it will be launching further public consultations on the amended Broadcasting Act, regarding the Independent Local News Fund and a fund to “support local news production by commercial radio.”
A number of U.S. Congress members have recently taken issue with the Trudeau government’s Online Streaming Act, arguing that it discriminates against American citizens, and have asked their country’s top trade official to intervene.
Nineteen Congress members signed a joint letter sent to U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai last month, requesting that she resolve their dispute with the Liberals’ protectionist media bill.
The signatures of the letter include eight Democrats and 11 Republicans, who say that the act’s implementation “will result in trade barriers” for the U.S. music streaming industry. They argue that the legislation, which would bring them under Canada’s Broadcasting Act, is designed for a bygone era that no longer makes sense in today’s digital world.
