CBC and creative groups push for internet and streaming tax

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, media producers and actors are once more calling for a tax on internet service providers and online streaming services such as Netflix Inc. to fund Canadian content despite the federal government’s insistence it will do no such thing.

In submissions to the federal broadcast regulator, the CBC, the Canadian Media Producers Association and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists argued internet providers should contribute financially to the broadcasting system given Canadians are increasingly ditching cable packages to watch video online. The CBC also argued that internet providers should favour Canadian content — a tactic that could undermine net neutrality.

The submissions are part of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s consultations on future programming distribution models. Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly ordered it to report on potential models by June 2018.

Canadians may have assumed the issues of internet taxes and future content consumption models were closed with the Creative Canada strategy, which Joly released in September after more than a year of consultations on how to support Canadian content in the digital era.

But the strategy didn’t contain specifics on how Canadian content will be funded. Instead, Joly asked the CRTC to hammer out the details.