Streaming services challenge Canadian rules on revenue-sharing for news
CTV
Global streaming companies said on Thursday they were challenging new Canadian rules that oblige them to help pay for local news, saying Ottawa had acted unreasonably and provided no legal basis for the demand.
Global streaming companies said on Thursday they were challenging new Canadian rules that oblige them to help pay for local news, saying Ottawa had acted unreasonably and provided no legal basis for the demand.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), the national broadcasting regulator, said in June that major online streaming services must contribute 5 per cent of their Canadian revenues to support the domestic broadcasting system, including news generation.
The Motion Picture Association-Canada, which represents firms including Netflix and Disney+, has filed applications in a federal court for leave to appeal the rules and also ask for a judicial review.
"The decision does not reveal any basis for the CRTC's conclusion that it is appropriate to require foreign online undertakings to contribute to news production," it said in a legal filing.
"The CRTC acted unreasonably in compelling foreign online undertakings to contribute monies to support news production."
The CRTC said the funding would be directed to areas of what it called immediate need in the broadcasting system, such as local news on radio and television, French-language content, and Indigenous content.
The regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It says the rules, which come into effect in September, will raise roughly $200 million a year.
