Canada’s broadcasting regulator announced new regulations for the Online Streaming Act, a law that brings global streaming platforms under domestic rules, including a requirement to pay into funds that support Canadian shows.
The rules unveiled on Thursday seek to ensure broadcasters “contribute to the creation of Canadian and Indigenous content in an equitable way that reflects their size and business models,” the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said in a news release.
Traditional broadcasters must contribute 25% of their domestic annual revenues to Canadian content, down from the current requirement range of 30% to 45%. Online broadcasters, which refers to streaming platforms, will have to contribute 15%, up from the previous 5%.
More than half of the contributions required of streamers can be made directly through content, while some will go toward funds.
The regulator also set out rules on the discoverability of Canadian content on platforms.
In a recent report, US trade representative Jamieson Greer’s office again cited Canada’s laws about online platforms as trade barriers. Republicans in Congress also introduced a bill in March that would launch an trade investigation into the Online Streaming Act.
Streaming firms have been fighting the new law, and were able to obtain a temporary pause on the 5% contribution requirement from the Federal Court of Appeal in December 2024. The pause remains in effect pending a decision by the court in the case.
The Motion Picture Association – which represents companies including Netflix, Paramount, Walt Disney and Amazon.com – said the new rules are unfair and claimed they violate the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
“American studios and streaming services are already the top foreign investors in Canada’s film and TV ecosystem,” Charles Rivkin, the association’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in an emailed statement.
“This decision triples the cost of doing business in Canada and will spark even more inflation in the market, making further investment and innovation less attractive.”
In a media briefing, the regulator’s vice-president of broadcasting, Scott Shortliffe, acknowledged that streaming companies would have preferred to not pay at all for Canadian content, “much less the requirements today.”
“No one ever likes being regulated. No one ever likes particularly being asked that they should pay more into a system,” he said.