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Canada has ordered massive on-line streaming providers to pay 5 p.c of their Canadian income to the federal government in a program anticipated to boost $200 million per yr to assist native information and different home-grown content material. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Fee (CRTC) introduced its resolution yesterday after a public remark interval.
“Based mostly on the general public report, the CRTC is requiring on-line streaming providers to contribute 5 p.c of their Canadian revenues to assist the Canadian broadcasting system. These obligations will begin within the 2024–2025 broadcast yr and can present an estimated $200 million per yr in new funding,” the regulator mentioned.
The charges apply to each video and music streaming providers. The CRTC imposed the foundations regardless of opposition from Amazon, Apple, Disney, Google, Netflix, Paramount, and Spotify.
The brand new charges are scheduled to take impact in September and apply to on-line streaming providers that make at the very least $25 million a yr in Canada. The rules exclude income from audiobooks, podcasts, online game providers, and user-generated content material. The exclusion of income from user-generated content material is a win for Google’s YouTube.
Streaming firms have just lately been elevating costs charged to shoppers, and the CBC notes that streamers would possibly increase costs once more to offset the charges charged in Canada.
Charges to assist native information, Indigenous content material
The CRTC mentioned it’s counting on authority from the On-line Streaming Act, which was authorized by Canada’s parliament in 2023. The brand new charges are comparable to those already imposed on licensed broadcasters.
“The funding will likely be directed to areas of fast want within the Canadian broadcasting system, similar to native information on radio and tv, French-language content material, Indigenous content material, and content material created by and for equity-deserving communities, official language minority communities, and Canadians of various backgrounds,” the CRTC mentioned.
CRTC Chairperson Vicky Eatrides mentioned the company’s “resolution will assist make sure that on-line streaming providers make significant contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content material.” The company additionally mentioned that streaming firms “can have some flexibility to direct components of their contributions to assist Canadian tv content material instantly.”
Trade teams blast CRTC
The Movement Image Affiliation-Canada criticized the CRTC yesterday, saying the charge ruling “reinforces a decades-old regulatory strategy designed for cable firms” and is “discriminatory.” The charges “will make it tougher for world streamers to collaborate instantly with Canadian creatives and spend money on world-class storytelling made in Canada for audiences right here and around the globe,” the foyer group mentioned.
The MPA-Canada mentioned the CRTC did not totally think about “the numerous contributions streamers make in working instantly with Canada’s artistic communities.” The group represents streamers together with Netflix, Disney Plus, HAYU, Sony’s Crunchyroll, Paramount Plus, and PlutoTV.
“World studios and streaming providers have spent over $6.7 billion yearly producing high quality content material in Canada for native and worldwide audiences and invested extra within the content material made by Canadian manufacturing firms final yr than the CBC, or the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm mixed,” the group mentioned.
The charges had been additionally criticized by the Digital Media Affiliation, which represents streaming music suppliers together with Amazon Music, Apple Music, and Spotify. The “discriminatory tax on music streaming providers… is successfully a protectionist subsidy for radio” and will worsen “Canada’s affordability disaster,” the group mentioned.
The Canadian Media Producers Affiliation praised the CRTC resolution, saying the choice advantages impartial producers and “tilts our business towards a extra degree taking part in subject.”
