Building community by ensuring streaming services don’t continue to get a free ride

Today, another wildly overdue update to the (Broadcasting) act is needed to protect Canadian content from being drowned out by new foreign streaming services. These streaming services were able to breeze their way onto our screens while being completely exempt from regulation, simply because they are transmitted over the internet instead of over the air or through cable.

 

Bill C-11, which replaces the old Bill C-10 that was introduced in the previous Parliament, is heading to committee — the next step in becoming law and fulfilling a promise of the Liberal government to address the inequities threatening Canadian broadcast media.

The bill would remove the exemption for streaming services. This would re-balance the scales in the face of a new technology, and is long overdue. User-generated content shared on social media is not covered by the bill.

Read the full commentary from Unifor’s media director here