Is your favourite show CanCon enough? Here's why the definition of Canadian content may get a reboot

What's your favourite bit of CanCon?

Maybe Schitt's Creek, which aired on CBC but also streamed on Netflix, comes to mind. Perhaps some iteration of Anne of Green Gables. Or maybe a classic David Cronenberg flick like Dead Ringers? These are all considered to be CanCon — shorthand for Canadian content, it refers to film and television productions made in Canada by Canadians.

But maybe you have a favourite show like CBS's Tracker, which airs on Global TV in Canada. It's one of the most watched shows on broadcast and streaming according to the Nielsen ratings, a U.S.-based audience measurement system. It's filmed in British Columbia and employs Canadians, but it's not considered CanCon.

That matters because broadcasters in this country have obligations to ensure that a minimum percentage of the content they distribute to viewers meets government CanCon requirements to ensure Canadian stories are available on Canadian TV screens or streaming devices. 

On-demand streaming changed the game, with global companies like Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ dominating the market. But they haven't been held to the same CanCon standards as traditional Canadian broadcasters, and the streaming companies say it's not realistic to expect them to do so.

That's not necessarily something that's on the minds of viewers when they settle into the couch and reach for the remote or the laptop. So here's what you need to know about CanCon and the challenge of getting Canadian eyes on it.

Canada's broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), is at a bit of a fork in the road when it comes to CanCon.  

The reason there are CanCon requirements is to ensure that Canadian stories and points of view don't get drowned out by the flood of content flowing in from the U.S.

"We are a small market in a big world and we sit next to a very experienced, prolific producer of content," said Dave Forget, executive director of the Directors Guild of Canada. "There should be some shelf space for the Canadian stories so that Canadians can also see themselves in their own experience." 

In 2023, Canada's Online Streaming Act came into effect, updating broadcasting laws to include content streaming services. 

It meant that foreign streaming companies would not only have to promote or recommend Canadian programming on their platforms, but streamers making $25 million or more in Canada will have to start paying five per cent of their domestic revenue to support the production of Canadian media content. 

The CRTC estimates that the levy would raise around $200 million a year and said the funding would be used to boost local and Indigenous broadcasting. 

But now the CRTC is also looking into updating what it considers to be Canadian content.

"Our goal is clear: to modernize the definition of Canadian content to reflect today's reality," said Vicky Eatrides, the CRTC's CEO and chairperson, during the start of public consultations last month aimed at reviewing what exactly constitutes CanCon, and to determine whether foreign streamers should be held to the same standards as traditional broadcasters in Canada.