CRTC asks U.S. tech giants for key data

Canada’s broadcast regulator is once more asking America’s tech giants for coveted online streaming data to help it plot the future of Canadian content consumption, a move that could test its clout with U.S. companies that previously refused to hand over their subscriber information.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last week asked Netflix, Facebook, Spotify, Apple, Amazon and Google for a trove of data that would reveal how Canadians consume audio and video content on the internet, including their advertising and subscription revenue, free and paid subscriber volumes, Canadian content expenditures and total viewing and listening hours for the past two years.

The CRTC says the data will help it prepare a report for the federal government, which ordered it to report back on future models of audio and video distribution in Canada, and how these models will support Canadian content. The report is due in June.

“This information will help the commission better understand the size and scope of the online audio and video market in Canada and its contribution to Canada and Canadians,” the CRTC wrote the companies on Friday.

These numbers are closely guarded, making it difficult to account for new players in a system that relies less on traditional radio and television broadcasts. But researchers estimate the number of Netflix subscribers alone has grown to about 6 million. For comparison, about 11 million Canadians have TV subscriptions.

The CRTC promised to keep all data confidential, calling its decision to do so “final and conclusive.”

“The commission understands the commercially sensitive nature of the information requested, therefore as indicated, will maintain confidentiality of the record received,” spokeswoman Patricia Valladao said in an email.

The CRTC asked for the same information from Rogers, Bell, Shaw, Corus, Quebecor, Stingray Digital Group, Sirius XM, DHX Television, CBC, Pelmorex and APTN. It’s a common procedural request for the Canadian companies, which routinely provide competitive information given they unquestionably answer to the regulator.

But it’s unclear whether the American internet giants will comply.

Netflix, which got into a high-profile fight with the CRTC over disclosure a few years ago, isn’t commenting on the latest request for information. In 2014, Netflix refused to comply with CRTC orders for subscriber information during a hearing on the future of television. Netflix said the order did not apply to it under Canadian broadcasting law. The CRTC disagreed.

The spat culminated with the CRTC erasing Netflix and Google from the public record of the hearing (Google refused to hand over YouTube upload data). But the question of the CRTC’s jurisdiction was never tried in court.