CRTC orders streamers to pay 15% of revenues to Canadian content

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced that large streaming services must contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content.

Notably, this is triple the previous contribution requirement set by the federal broadcast regulator in 2024. This ruling applies to streamers who reach certain high revenue thresholds in Canada, which would include major streamers like Netflix, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video. Meanwhile, the CRTC is lowering the contribution requirements for national broadcasters from between 30 and 45 per cent to 25 per cent.

The CRTC’s ruling comes as part of the long-gestating Online Streaming Act, which has been criticized by the U.S. government amid larger trade negotiations with Canada. Further, the Motion Picture Association (MPA), which represents entertainment giants like Disney, Prime Video/MGM and Netflix, told The Hollywood Reporter that it “strongly condemns the CRTC’s decision to impose unprecedented, unnecessary, and discriminatory investment obligations on American streaming services operating in Canada.”

The CRTC, meanwhile, is looking to make companies that already regularly use Canada as a production hub to invest more in local content. This is particularly true with respect to the definition of “Canadian content” (or “CanCon”) being rather loose over the years, leading companies like Disney to tout titles that prominently feature Canadian actors or storylines (like Markham, Ont.’s Iman Vellani in Ms. Marvel or Turning Red being set in Toronto) but are otherwise made elsewhere.

The CRTC says it expects these new requirements to result in more than $2 billion in additional funding for Canadian and Indigenous content, including French-language programming. It remains to be seen what action the MPA may take to challenge the new ruling.

Source: CRTC