Ottawa on Tuesday proposed changes to Canada’s broadcasting regulatory framework that would see it applied to booming online streaming platforms and might require them to contribute cash to support Canadian storytelling.
If passed by parliament, the amendment to the Broadcasting Act would empower the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to apply the same rules as traditional broadcasters to platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify.
It might also compel them to contribute to a fund that supports the creation, production and distribution of Canadian music, film and television, which the government estimates could raise as much as C$830 million (US$625.6 million) by 2023.
“One system for our traditional broadcasters and a separate system for online broadcasters doesn’t work,” Minister of Canadian Heritage Steven Guilbeault told a news conference.
“Our government believes that everyone who benefits from the system should contribute to it fairly,” he said.
However, critics said that the legislative changes do not go far enough.
“The new Broadcasting Act ... is a mess,” tweeted Canadian lawmaker Alexandre Boulerice, of the opposition New Democratic Party.
He accused the government of having “surrendered to Big Tech without a fight.”
The Broadcasting Act has not been updated since 1991 — prior to the advent of the Internet, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s minority Liberal Party government has been under pressure by Canadian broadcasters to tax Netflix and others to level the playing field.
A government briefing document said that 62 percent of Canadian households now subscribe to Netflix, which last year generated C$1 billion in revenues in Canada.
At the same time, the revenues of traditional radio and television broadcasters are stagnating or declining, along with their contributions to the Canadian content fund.
Guilbeault said that some of the streaming platforms are already spending on Canadian music, television and film productions, but their contributions are only voluntary.
Netflix, for example, in 2017 announced that it would spend C$500 million or 5 percent of its global production budget to make original films and television shows in Canada.
The CRTC, is expected to sort out how the funding requirements would be applied to streaming services over the coming year, Guilbeault said.
User-generated content, online news and video games, would not be subjected to the new rules, the Canadian government said.
TECH CORRIDOR: The new Phase II site is expected to work with other facilities in the region and nation as TSMC looks to shape the future with its manufacturing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) would build three additional advanced packaging facilities in Phase II of the Chiayi Science Park (嘉義科學園區), National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) Minister Wu Cheng-wen (吳誠文) said yesterday. Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Phase II, Wu said the roughly 90-hectare site would be developed into an advanced packaging industry cluster led by TSMC. Two advanced packaging facilities at Phase I began mass production last month. Wu said that the Phase II development of the Chiayi Science Park would strengthen the resilience of the regional economy and help transform Chiayi County into a global production
Chinese authorities have held meetings with top tech firms over the past month about potentially restricting overseas access to China’s most advanced AI models, including those yet to be released, three people familiar with the discussions said. The talks follow a number of steps by Beijing to keep homegrown AI technology in the country and underscore how China, like the US, is now treating cutting-edge artificial intelligence as a critical national asset that needs controls. Companies present at the talks included tech giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) and ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動), as well as start-up Z.ai, formerly known as Zhipu AI
MOMENTUM: Second-quarter revenue reached NT$1.27 trillion as the June turnover surged, while TSMC’s 2nm process spending and US expansion remain focus points Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reported its highest quarterly sales amid strong global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The world’s largest contract chipmaker posted NT$1.27 trillion (US$39.5 billion) in consolidated revenue for the second quarter of this year, up 36 percent year-on-year and nearly 12 percent from a quarter earlier. The quarterly figure was bolstered by a very strong performance last month, when TSMC’s revenue was up 67.9 percent from a year earlier and rose 6.2 percent from a month earlier to NT$442.68 billion, a new monthly high, TSMC said in a statement. At its earnings conference in April, TSMC
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the second largest contract chipmaker in Taiwan, said yesterday that it has started mass production of silicon photonics wafers at its 12-inch wafer fab in Singapore. The first batch of silicon photonics wafers in commercial production was achieved in collaboration with Singapore-based silicon photonics fabless firm Silith Technology Pte Ltd, which took delivery of the batch of products, UMC said in a statement. UMC said the cooperation integrated Silith’s photonics design expertise with UMC’s 12-inch wafer production capacity and process capabilities to support high-volume production of the Singaporean partner’s 1.6 terabits per second (1.6T) silicon photonics platform. The
RSS