The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has set a threshold that determines which online streaming services will be subject to new rules arising from the Online Streaming Act, formerly known as Bill C-11.
I’m not really sure how I feel about this. I guess we’ll see how it plays out.
Requiring content businesses who operate in Canada to contribute to Canadian content production seems reasonable. Cable and radio broadcasters have operated under those rules for decades.
If it’s too much of a burden, they can cancel their services in Canada and lease their content to another provider who is willing to meet the regulatory requirements. And Canadians can still access international services using a VPN, so it doesn’t hurt informed consumers with minimal technical knowledge.
Without knowing the details, it’s hard to know. Hopefully, they aren’t required to meet streaming thresholds (“You must watch 1 hour of Canadian content to play this stream”) or percentage of available content must be Canadian (cut out international content and/or fill up with cheap crappy Canadian content).
Requiring them to pay a percentage of revenue to purchase rights to or create Canadian content seems reasonable. Might make our streaming prices a bit higher, but probably worth it if it supports the domestic TV/film industry and local cultures.
BUT: is this also the part of Bill C-11 that requires them to wreck their search and discoverability algorithms to show Canadian content first? Because that’s a big fucking problem with Bill C-11, from what I’ve heard/read.
YouTube has already wrecked their recommendations, so at least I don’t have to worry about that.
A good chunk of both my TikTok and YouTube feed is already Canadian content creators.
It’s in their best interest to promote local results because they tend to be more engaging.
I doubt any of the social media platforms will have to change anything, and the streaming services already have CanCon sections.
