Netflix seeks `flexible' regulations

Netflix is fine with the CRTC requiring it to contribute to Canadian content, but those regulations should be tailored to the streaming service and be less stringent than the rules traditional broadcasters have to abide by, its Canadian representative told MPS.

“We are not saying that we do not wish to contribute. We want to participate in the system. It’s just that doing so should be done in a manner that takes into consideration the nature of our service,” Stéphane Cardin, Netflix’s director of public policy, said during an appearance at the Heritage committee Friday.

Cardin called for an approach that creates a “flexible framework that will enable the CRTC to tailor conditions of service applying to online undertakings, and to recognize the different ways that online services contribute.

“Simply imposing the regulatory obligations of licensed Canadian broadcasters on online entertainment services would not be an appropriate approach,” he said. “Services like Netflix do not perform the same roles as traditional broadcasters, nor do we have the same content strategy.”

Cardin appeared at the committee as part of its study of Bill C-10, the bill tabled by Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault that amends the Broadcasting Act and sets up the CRTC to begin regulating online streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The bill is in its second reading. It specifies that the CRTC has the authority to force online services to make financial contributions to Canadian content, and impose “conditions” on them, which the government has said would include rules around, for instance, making Canadian content easily discoverable on the service.

It leaves the details of what those contributions and rules would look like to the CRTC, though Guilbeault has said more instructions will be provided to the CRTC once the bill passes.

Right now, licensed broadcasters are required to spend 30 per cent of their revenue on Canadian content. TV service providers, like cable companies, also have to contribute five per cent of their TV service revenues to fund Cancon.

Cardin said imposing a 30 per cent spending requirement wouldn’t be fair or equitable. He argued the company receives no regulatory benefits from the CRTC, and doesn’t carry news or live sports, the two categories where most of the traditional broadcasters’ Cancon funding is spent.

But one broadcaster who also appeared before the committee Friday urged the government to ensure that both traditional and digital players face comparable regulatory obligations.

“It is critical that Canadian domestic broadcasting companies do not have more onerous obligations than U.s.-based big tech giants,” said Susan Wheeler, Rogers’ vice-president of regulatory media.