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.
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