Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC for short) has declared new rules to instate the regulation of streaming services, including podcasts. In their newest regulatory plan, they state the commission aims to ‘modernise’ Canada’s broadcasts. Their efforts have widely displeased the public in the country as many are outraged and call this new regulation a ‘crush of free speech’.
In late September, the commission publicly stated that they want to “ensure online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content.” This is not the first stint pulled by the CRTC, as earlier this year in the spring they launched their first decision on the matter stating that all “online streaming services need to provide information about their activities in Canada.” This includes those operating in the country itself, those who offer broadcasting content, and earn $10 million or more in annual revenues, must complete their online registration form by 28 November of this year. This is quite confusing for companies as the regulations don’t make clear if the streaming services operating in the country only need to register if they are physically based there, or simply offer content available within the country.
The commission’s other decision they released to the public was that they were now going to set conditions for all streaming services to operate within the country. Those conditions now take effect and require the streaming services to provide the CRTC with information about their topics as well as subscribership.
While this means that individual users and subscribers to the services do not need to register, all media streaming services services as well as podcasts must register and include tons of information.
The Chief Executive Officer of the CRTC and Chairperson made a public statement about the decisions, not mentioning anything about the public outcry about violation of free speech.
“We are developing a modern broadcasting framework that can adapt to changing circumstances. To do that, we need broad engagement and robust public records. We appreciate the significant participation during this first phase and look forward to hearing a diversity of perspectives at our contributions proceeding in November.”
These new regulations have left the country quite stunned as the public cries out about how harsh the CRTC is being with the new regulations. These new regulations come after the heavily debated Online News Act which received Royal Assent in June of this year. Currently, Spotify and YouTube are the most popular streaming platforms in Canada, and both have physical offices in Canada. Either way, the large companies will be affected by the new regulations and likely their subscribers will be dealing with the results. What the results will be is still to be determined. The city that is predicted to be hit the worst by these new regulations is the creative capital of the country, Toronto, Ontario.