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The Almighty Buck Canada Government

Online Streaming Services In Canada Must Hand Over 5% of Domestic Revenues (www.cbc.ca) 94

An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC News: Online streaming services operating in Canada will be required to contribute five percent of their Canadian revenues to support the domestic broadcasting system, the country's telecoms regulator said on Tuesday. The money will be used to boost funding for local and Indigenous broadcasting, officials from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said in a briefing. "Today's decision will help ensure that online streaming services make meaningful contributions to Canadian and Indigenous content," wrote CRTC chief executive and chair Vicky Eatrides in a statement.

The measure was introduced under the auspices of a law passed last year designed to make sure that companies like Netflix make a more significant contribution to Canadian culture. The government says the legislation will ensure that online streaming services promote Canadian music and stories, and support Canadian jobs. Funding will also be directed to French-language content and content created by official language minority communities, as well as content created by equity-deserving groups and Canadians of diverse backgrounds. The release also said that online streaming services will "have some flexibility" to send their revenues to support Canadian television directly. [...]

The measure, which will start in the 2024-2025 broadcasting year, would raise roughly $200 million annually, CRTC officials said. It will only apply to services that are not already affiliated with Canadian broadcasters. The CMPA was among 20 screen organizations from around the world that signed a statement in January asking governments to impose stronger regulations on streaming companies operating in local markets. One of the demands was a measure that would force companies profiting from their presence in those markets to contribute financially to the creation of new local content.
"We are disappointed by today's decision and concerned by the negative impact it will have on Canadian consumers. We are assessing the decision in full, but this onerous and inflexible financial levy will be harmful to consumer choice," a spokesperson for Prime Video wrote to CBC News in a statement.
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Online Streaming Services In Canada Must Hand Over 5% of Domestic Revenues

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  • ... for the streaming services to band together and give every subscriber a VPN for free and then leave Canada.

    • by Wrexs0ul ( 515885 ) <mmeierNO@SPAMracknine.com> on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @03:59PM (#64523157) Homepage

      Come-on, we already know they'll just raise prices another 10% to address this. It's just another straight-to-consumer tax under the auspices or taming corporations.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        Come-on, we already know they'll just raise prices another 10% to address this.

        Capitalism doesn't work that way.

        If they could make more money at a higher price, they'd already be doing it.

        • They raise prices slowly so that the frogs don't hop out of the pot. And I hope you've noticed that streaming services have all been raising prices recently.

        • by BoB235423424 ( 6928344 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @10:03PM (#64523803)

          What keeps them from doing that now is that their competition does not need to. Raising prices in isolation to your competitors requires you having a better enough product to not lose customers to the competition. The problem with industry wide fees/taxes like this, is that their competition will also need to raise prices. It will be a similar price hike for all the services at the exact same time. No one will lose a pricing competitive advantage. This will not be absorbed by the big bad capitalist streaming companies. It will be paid for by the consumers.

          This is just a way to fund pet projects from the government without directly raising taxes. They'll blame big, bad business and Capitalism for the higher prices while sending money to favored projects that customers have little interest in actually paying to watch. All while being able to campaign against Capitalism to push their Progressive ideas based on demonizing the price change they caused (but refuse to take credit for).

          • by piojo ( 995934 )

            The problem with industry wide fees/taxes like this, is that their competition will also need to raise prices.. No one will lose a pricing competitive advantage. This will not be absorbed by the big bad capitalist streaming companies. It will be paid for by the consumers.

            That analysis doesn't make sense. You can simplify the problem by considering one company instead of an industry (because as you pointed out, competitive advantages aren't relevant). This industry/company sets its prices to maximize profit. They choose a point on the demand curve to maximize revenue. The simplest analysis is that when taxed, they must keep their prices the same because they still need to maximize revenue, and the demand curve has not changed.

            In reality, the streaming companies probably have

      • Mesmerized by how your reply went directly to the private service providers being taxed and completely skipped the government that is forcibly imposing this tax.

        You even went as far as to extrapolate that is a plot of the private service providers to get an extra 5%.

      • Come-on, we already know they'll just raise prices another 10% to address this. It's just another straight-to-consumer tax under the auspices or taming corporations.

        This is good. It only “taxes” consumers of digital shows instead of everyone, whether they watch the stuff or not.

    • ... for the streaming services to band together and give every subscriber a VPN for free and then leave Canada.

      So you really think moving to the tax-riddled USA to build your operations from scratch is worth a 5% tax? I’m willing to bet the Board is gonna make you prove that bullshit. Good luck.

      • Amazing how when businesses want to move here our businesses are suddenly "tax-riddled", but all our locals prefer to say that our corps are skating, not paying nearly enough...

        I think I'll go back to ignoring everyone else's subjective realities...

      • So you really think moving to the tax-riddled USA to build your operations from scratch

        Most of these streaming services already have most of their operations in America.

        Some have no infrastructure in Canada other than a help desk phone number that can't reach a human.

      • USA has relatively low tax, despite all the complaints. It's very business friendly. All the major streaming services have their major corporate centers in USA already, anything in Canada is just an expensive field office.

        • USA has relatively low tax, despite all the complaints.

          Yah, we have to read "Tax Riddled" and "low tax" as "I want no tax at all". But I do want all my government services for free.

    • The company doesn't even have to be in Canada to stream to Canadians. It's the internet! If the company is in Kenya, is Canada going to block the site? Or block the CDN's IP address?

    • by Darinbob ( 1142669 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @05:56PM (#64523433)

      They'll require Canadians to buy their overpriced VPN service, plus add several fees to help with profits.

      This is nothing new with Canada; they have a copying tax on all blank media, like CD-R and cassette tapes.

    • How long before the enforce content consumption requirements, along the lines of their requirements for Canadian content on their broadcast services?

      I can see it now, "Before you can watch Mission Impossible 8 you must watch this Canadian show on curling..."

    • by whitroth ( 9367 )

      Oh, I see: you're a Libertarian, and don't care about anyone but you.

      Yes, they will pay. And when we run your kind, and the Trump Crime Family out of Congress, we'll tax them, too.

  • by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @03:56PM (#64523147)

    It's not the worst thing to foster Canadian content. If we didn't do this, we might as well close down our entire entertainment industry as it would get washed away by American content overnight.

    On the other hand... We've had some crappy stuff funded this way.

    • by LazarusQLong ( 5486838 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @04:08PM (#64523173)
      back in prehistoric times, local channels were required to provide for locally produced (in the case of the town where I lived, it was mostly crap) shows... the local town station had local news, local events, and local people talking about local issues... One show I watched really opened my eyes... there was this little old lady and her wheelchair had one of those flags sticking up that you could buy for your bicycle and she was ALWAYS in her wheelchair in the road. I had never given her a thought other than that her wheelchair in the road was definitely unsafe. Well, she got on the local channel and did a 1 hour show explaining curb cuts to all the idiots like me who had never really thought about it. Then showing us where she needed to go in town and where the curb cuts actually were, so yeah, she was in the road. Because of her little show many of the local businesses got together and paid for curb cuts to be installed around town so people like her didn't have to drive their wheelchairs in the street... Now, for a really nasty problem, I lived in Massachusetts back then, imagine her in her wheelchair needed to go to the grocery store in February through maybe 12" of snow, but she did it, rain or shine.
      • What I've noticed is the weather reports. You used to have local weather with meteorologists who knew the local weather patterns better than any central model.

        And lots of bad community access stuff. Rogers cable 10 for the 'win'?

        • Yeah, I used to live on Cape Cod, we had two (2!) local tv stations... so we could get local weather, then they went out of business, so after that, you got weather from Boston or Providence, neither of which were anywhere near accurate for the Cape... I still remember one weatherman talking about what great tanning weather we were having and what a great time that weekend would be for going down to the Cape. It was pouring down rain when he said that, it was pouring down rain for the next week. Once, we ha
      • The local goes global of the internet and social media sure made such stories unlikely if not impossible nowadays. Thanks for sharing.
    • by Roger W Moore ( 538166 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @04:59PM (#64523293) Journal

      It's not the worst thing to foster Canadian content.

      Yes it literally is because now that we have streaming we cannot be forced to watch anything. So, siphoning off lots of money to make programs that nobody wants to watch - and therefore will not watch because with streaming you get to choose - is an utter waste of money that provides no cultural value because nobody is watching the utter crap they produce.

      This is not a way to bolster Canadian culture it is simply a way for Trudeau to use other people's money to bribe the Canadian media and keep them happy with him. He tried it with Google's and Facebook's money and when that failed he has now turned to using our money. If you really want to bolster Canadian content force the entertainment industry to do as their name suggests and produce shows that are entertaining and thought provoking and not just thinly veiled political messaging where entertainment is very optional.

  • I'm OK with this (Score:3, Informative)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @03:58PM (#64523151)
    if the content is actually local. I don't know about Canada but in the US we don't have any local content left. Every TV station in the country is owned by Sinclair Media.
    • what (Score:4, Insightful)

      by RegistrationIsDumb83 ( 6517138 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @04:03PM (#64523167)
      Every other show is filmed in Vancouver already.
      • Every other show is filmed in Vancouver already.

        That's national network shows. Local stations are now a subsidiary of some huge media conglomerate. We used to have four separate local stations. They recently consolidated, so that we have one news program across the four networks, and nationally airing programs get whatever the base network is supposed to be programming wise. I do miss the local content sometimes. Honestly? Once they went to a single news program, I kinda stopped watching. It ceased to have much to do with local events outside of election

        • by kenh ( 9056 )

          Cable systems carry public access channels...

          • Cable systems carry public access channels...

            But who wants to pay for cable just to access local channels? Last I checked I could get cable for $150 a month, and there's no cheap option that just gives you the basics, it's all in with seventy-bazillion channels of nonsense, or nothing. It should be over the air, but those over the air channels have all been bought out by the big media conglomerate and "merged" into one. We do have access to over the air creative channels, supposedly PBS related, but it's a far cry from public access. Just nationally s

    • The owners of the local broadcasters has nothing to do with local content. People have choices and don't watch local content. If the large media companies that own the local broadcasters believed they could make money off of shoestring budget local interest productions, they would be making them. Cable, and now streaming (along with decades of existing content) have given people choices they prefer. Even a locally owned broadcaster would choose syndicated content.

      We could always change economic systems

      • It may well be true that IF a broadcaster thought they could make money from content then they would make it. However... surely some content that might have to be produced at a loss is important? Here in the UK we have programs in Welsh which are funded mostly by the license fee and other broadcast-based taxes. Don't large groups of people from an individual area or culture deserve SOME media relevant to themselves? Canada has a large population of pre-European-colonisation, right? First Nations people I th

    • No local content left? That's actually really sad, because local content is out there. Local problems and issues. Local elections. Local school happenings. Local sports teams. Etc. Etc.

      Some proportion of local people care about these things. The trick is finding a way to collect and publish the info, in the age of massive, faceless corporations.

  • It’s a tax (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hdyoung ( 5182939 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @04:20PM (#64523199)
    Plain and simple. Not unlike the taxes that countries use to fund roads.

    Whether this particular tax is a good or bad idea, that’s a stickier question. So far, Canada’s attempts to wring money out of US internet giants has backfired.
    • Re:It's a tax (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Local ID10T ( 790134 ) <ID10T.L.USER@gmail.com> on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @05:11PM (#64523339) Homepage

      A tax that will result in a commensurate rate increase for Canadian customers. If Canadians are OK with this, then I don't see a problem with it.

      If Canada wants a cut of revenue from Canadian citizens expenditures, so be it. As long as they are not trying to tax revenue of non-Canadian businesses doing business with non-Canadian citizens, it is an internal matter.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Plain and simple. Not unlike the taxes that countries use to fund roads.
      Whether this particular tax is a good or bad idea, thatâ(TM)s a stickier question. So far, Canadaâ(TM)s attempts to wring money out of US internet giants has backfired.

      Yea it's hard to get upset here.
      They are taxing all streaming companies, not just US ones.
      They are being taxed only on their earnings within Canada, not their earnings elsewhere.

      This looks, sounds, and feels like nothing more than a tax. Nothing about it appears to be targeting US companies specifically.

      This is nothing like the EU creating laws that are specifically tailored to target five American companies and nothing else, then lie about that targeting.

      +1 point for Canada here

    • Five percent to go to Canadian public broadcasting to promote Government interests. I can see why they would want that. But I've lost faith in Canadian public TV Docos that I watch on streaming platforms, as the intelligence level seems ordinary.
  • This takes revenues from non-Canadian content to fund Canadian broadcasters. It's even more insidious than the 'domestic content' requirements on Canadian media companies. Of course, the Canadian talking head community is happy to blame "Yankee Cultural Imperialism" any time Canadians don't buy what the elites think they should.

    (And for the record, my CD collection includes, among other Canadian artists, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Tafelmusik, La Nef, Glenn Gould and every recording by Stan Rogers.)

  • News Flash (Score:5, Insightful)

    by markdavis ( 642305 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @04:26PM (#64523219)

    >"Online Streaming Services In Canada Must Hand Over 5% of Domestic Revenues"

    News flash- Canadian streaming services suddenly raise prices 5%.

    • by ne0n ( 884282 )
      This tax is necessary because voters are watching their grocery bills inflate as Turdeau pumps $1.2 billion into the state's propaganda machine. Gotta squeeze the plebs to pay for all those CBC bonuses [nationalpost.com].
    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      This assumes that they set prices to generate a specific % profit for some reason. No business works like that, prices are set based on what the market will bare and their strategic goals e.g. growing their customer base.

      If they do simply raise their prices by 5%, it will create opportunities for competitors.

      This is a lie they tell you to avoid being taxed. It's rare that all costs are passed directly to the consumer.

    • >"Online Streaming Services In Canada Must Hand Over 5% of Domestic Revenues"

      News flash- Canadian streaming services suddenly raise prices 5%.

      Wonder how this will work with Sirius XM, which already dedicates a whole slew of channels to Canadian content? Will Sirius tell them "What, this wasn't enough?".

  • At this point Netflix, Max and YouTube are the thralls of Wall Street. Wall Street wants more and more profits out of the streaming services. If Canada proves to be a threat to profits, then the services will do what Facebook/Instragram did with news: Phase themselves out. That way, Canada gets nothing, and the profits keep coming.

    The only mystery is why the Canadian state does not seem to realize that ... unless that is the intent: Remove non-Canadian programming from their internet.

  • I seem to recall seeing a news story about them once. But now, I can't seem to find it [nytimes.com].

    I think it's just a place they made up as the setting for the Dudley Do-Right cartoon show.

  • Commie Tax (Score:1, Insightful)

    by zakeria ( 1031430 )
    just like the BBC in the UK .. it will fund only far left propaganda and nothing else.
  • by Revek ( 133289 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @06:05PM (#64523449)
    About the young keeping the old on life support.
  • by mrobinso ( 456353 ) on Tuesday June 04, 2024 @06:15PM (#64523465) Homepage

    Prime will raise their prices to cover the 5% levy.
    So will Google, Netflix, Disney, and all the rest.
    And soon as they do, people will cancel and move on.
    We're already witnessing a significant resurgence in pirating and torrents - this CRTC nonsense will just add fuel to that fire.

    People are already leaving Disney in droves over their last increase, which was close to 30%. And they'll have to add another.
    And now, many of the streamers are dropping ads.
    What a shit show.

    • by TypoNAM ( 695420 )

      Additionally Disney removed their native Disney Plus app from Microsoft Store and replaced it with an Edge web browser app which is limited to 720p (same limitation applies to all web browsers on Windows).

      The previous Disney Plus app on Windows provided native 1080P video at the very least.

      So not only did they make a huge jump in subscription pricing they also gave us PC customers the middle finger.

  • This tax should be much higher, at least 50%. That way people would cancel their subscriptions, get outside, and actually contribute to "Canadian culture."

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