CRTC announces online streaming giants to contribute revenues to Canadian content

“We’ve been fighting for these supports for over 15 years. The American streaming giants have been allowed to broadcast in this country without having to contribute to the Canadian broadcasting system, while our Canadian broadcasters have to contribute to the Canadian broadcasting system. So that creates an uneven playing field,” says Unifor’s Director of Media Randy Kitt.

The CRTC says this new conditional revenue will provide an estimated $200 million per year in new funding, which will be divided among many organizations and funds to support Canadian content creation. It will take effect on September 1 because that is the start of the 2024-25 broadcast year. Of the $200 million, Kitt expects around $60 million of it will go towards the Independent Local News Fund, which he says is welcome and long overdue support.

“The media landscape over the last 20 years has just been devastating in Canada. We’ve lost so many jobs. So many newsrooms have gone dark, And that means less reporters, less feet on the street, less people holding our elected officials to account,” Kitt said.

Kitt continued by saying last year 1300 media jobs were lost, and for Unifor members specifically 160 jobs have been lost already in 2024, up from 120 last year.

“As we see less reporters, we’re going to see less reporting. And that’s dangerous for journalism, dangerous for our democracy when we’re looking to hold the powerful to account and telling our stories in our community,” he said.

Pattison Media’s Prince George General Manager Kevin Gemmell says it’s too early to see how exactly this will impact Northern B.C. media, but says he’s optimistic this will not only keep local content in our communities, but perhaps even strengthen it.

“I’m hoping it will ultimately funnel down to the individual operations and at least keep the number of feet on the ground we have, if not build more, time will tell what we see out of that. Obviously it’s a 2024-2025 broadcast year, so really we won’t start to realize this funding for another 18 months or so,” Gemmell said.

While the additional $200 million a year in added revenue will undoubtedly leave an impact on Canadian content creation, Kitt added he hopes to see more done, as he says this is just one piece of the puzzle.

“Currently there’s nothing for the vertically integrated stations, and they’re losing money and they’re in desperate need of support as well. The CRTC has hearings to come, and I hope there’s more supports for television, and local journalism in the future,” Kitt said.

Of the 5% revenue, the CRTC’s website says it will be spread out like so:

Audio-visual online streaming services will go to the following funds:

2% to the Canada Media Fund and/or direct expenditures towards certified Canadian content;
1.5% to the Independent Local News Fund;
0.5% to the Black Screen Office Fund, the Canadian Independent Screen Fund for BPOC creators, and/or the Broadcasting Accessibility Fund;
0.5% to the Certified Independent Production Funds supporting OLMC producers and producers from diverse communities; and
0.5% to the Indigenous Screen Office Fund.

The contributions from audio online undertakings will go to the following funds:

2% to FACTOR and Musicaction;
1.5% to a new temporary fund supporting local news production by commercial radio stations outside of the designated markets;
0.5% to the Canadian Starmaker Fund and Fonds RadioStar;
0.5% to the Community Radio Fund of Canada;
0.35% to direct expenditures targeting the development of Canadian and Indigenous content and/or a variety of selected funds; and
0.15% to the Indigenous Music Office and a new fund to support Indigenous music.

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by Tommy Osborne

CRTC announces online streaming giants to contribute revenues to Canadian content

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