Half of Canadians want CanCon regs for music streaming services: CRTC survey

A new survey suggests that just over half of Canadians believe that streaming services like Spotify AB and Apple Inc.'s music service should be required to pay into Canadian content regulations, while 68 per cent of Canadians believe that any regulations placed on streaming services should "should not interfere with consumers' ability to choose the content they want." The survey, conducted by the research firm Ipsos and commissioned by the CRTC, was released Tuesday ahead of the Commission’s review into the policy framework surrounding commercial radio in Canada, for which interventions are due on Mar. 29. The survey aims to help the regulator "understand the current habits, impressions and expectations of Canadians towards radio (and specifically the commercial radio sector) and help to encourage participation among Canadians in the review process," according to the report. In the survey, 68 per cent of respondents reported listening to commercial radio at least once a week, and 39 per cent of them reported listening daily, more than the 39 per cent who reported that they listen to music streaming services at least once a week, and the 32 per cent who reported listening to CBC/Radio-Canada at least once a week. Although survey respondents reported listening to commercial radio more often than either streaming services or the CBC, they also reported a higher level of satisfaction with streaming services. Some 54 per cent of streaming listeners put their satisfaction between eight and ten (out of ten), while 48 per cent did so for CBC, and 47 per cent for commercial AM/FM radio. "A majority of Canadians also agree that promoting Canadian artists and music is essential to ensuring a strong Canadian culture and that it is important that we continue to promote Canadian artists through Canadian content rules . Most don't pay a lot of attention to whether the artist is Canadian or not when listening to music ," the report said. The survey was conducted using 1,735 online surveys of Canadians who were "pre-recruited to participate" in research over the age of 18, along with 2,969 surveys completed voluntarily after promotion on the CRTC website and social media channels. Respondents completed the surveys between Nov. 12 and 16, 2020. At the Canadian Telecom Summit in November, BCE Inc.'s senior vice-president of radio and local TV, Nikki Moffat, argued for greater flexibility on Canadian content regulations for commercial TV and radio. “In order for us to compete with pure plays such as Spotify, we must level the playing field, and at a minimum, amend the regulations to provide commercial licensees with the flexibility to operate in order to deliver a product that the listeners demand,” Moffat said at the time. — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Tim Forster at tforster@thewirereport.ca

Half of Canadians want CanCon regs for music streaming services: CRTC survey

Broadcast | February 23, 2021

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Half of Canadians want CanCon regs for music streaming services: CRTC survey

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