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.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last