Changing CanCon rules might benefit from broader consultation, CRTC panel told

A media company appearing at the last day of a CRTC hearing on redefining how audio-visual productions can be classified as Canadian content (CanCon) argued that effectively supporting CanCon could be difficult if the regulator makes changes to its definition while other bodies do not. Blue Ant Media Inc. founder and CEO Michael MacMillan told a panel of commissioners Tuesday, May 27, that the Canadian government interacts with the industry in “a variety of ways,” through agencies including the CRTC, the heritage department (now under the purview of MP Steven Guilbeault as Minister of Identity and Culture), the Canada Media Fund, Canadian Audio-Visual Certification Office (CAVCO), and others – all of which have their own guidelines and incentives which are “heavily linked and intertwined,” he said. “While we applaud the commission for taking on the difficult task of defining Canadian content, we do worry that by creating or changing CRTC rules without looking at all the other areas I just mentioned, we will create unintended consequences,” MacMillan said. “We believe that a more holistic approach involving all of these parties and agencies is needed to re-examine the definition of Canadian content and how to incentivize the creation of that Canadian content. Otherwise, it is like pulling on one thread of a tapestry and risking the entire thing unraveling.” This is a slight change of tune for Blue Ant. MacMillan noted that in its written submission to this proceeding it argued that the CRTC and CAVCO definitions should be considered separately. But after listening to other speakers at the proceeding, “we realize our initial view on this is impractical,” he said. “In fact, we now firmly believe that we should be looking to CAVCO, who has the expertise in production and in the important nuances in ownership and control of intellectual rights, to guide the process and come up with a definition of Canadian content that works for CRTC and CAVCO purposes.” Otherwise, Blue Ant argues the updated framework needs to support Canadian-owned and controlled production companies. “This means mechanisms that allow Canadian producers to own and meaningfully control the intellectual property and the content they produce – and by intellectual property, we don't just mean copyright. We mean the ownership and control of the economic rights in a program, essentially the ability to monetize content rights internationally,” MacMillan said. “In other words, we need Canadian producers to retain rights and content that they can then license to others and keep the money to reinvest in and produce more content.” Meanwhile, flexibility in applying the CanCon rules has been a recurring theme at the hearing. Groups including the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) discussed flexibility during their appearances, as did the Motion Picture Association of Canada (MPA-Canada), the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), Rogers Communications Inc., and the Canada Media Fund (CMF). On Tuesday, Randy Kitt, director of media with trade union Unifor, which represents thousands of people working in the Canadian media sector, told the CRTC that flexibility cannot mean less regulation or making concessions to players, particularly foreign streamers, as Canadian broadcasters fight to compete with their offerings and bring in cash. “Flexibility always means less,” Kitt said. “Do not give concessions to foreign streamers to appease them. It will not work out for us in the end,” Kitt said. “The answer is regulation and support.” “Let's remember that before online streaming, foreign broadcasters were not permitted in Canada. This forced the foreign broadcasters to partner and license their programs to Canadian broadcasters, which they used to cross subsidize local news with the business model broken by a failure to regulate these entities,” Kitt said. “They should absolutely have to pay into funds that support local news, because Canadian broadcasters have always had to support local news, and because it is the very existence of foreign online broadcasters in this country that has contributed to the decline of local news and have eroded our democracy.” Kitt said Unifor has lost 482 members in broadcast television, mostly in local news, in the past two-and-a-half years. Last year was its worst decline, at 376 members lost. When the union was formed in 2013, its media sector had 13,000 members. It now stands at just under 10,000, Kitt said. “We also must come to terms with the fact that the big players like and Rogers are not too big to support,” Kitt said. “We cannot allow them to continually lose money on local news and then expect them to deliver the high-quality local news that we have come to expect from them. It is time that we all recognize that the financial model for the creation of local news is broken and a new model for sustainable, ongoing, and adequate funding will have to be available for all Canadian news businesses.” Unifor is in favour of requiring that a production’s producer and people in key creative positions must be Canadian. The day kicked off with Min Sook Lee of the Documentary Organization of Canada who said that foreign streamers have to date provided little support for long-form documentaries, while Canadian broadcasters are more supportive. In addition to other recommendations, Sook Lee proposed a seven-point system for determining CanCon specifically for documentaries to better reflect how they are typically made. The commission has proposed expanding the current 10-point system, in which productions need to earn at least six points to be considered Canadian, to a 15-point system, where productions need to earn at least nine points. The new criteria would bring in several other positions, including showrunner, head of costume design, key make-up or hair artist, and visual effects director. Sook Lee said a seven-point framework would be more appropriate for documentaries specifically, requiring a minimum of six points to qualify as CanCon, with positions such as director and screenwriter being two points each, and director of photography, editor, and music composer being one point each. Tuesday’s hearing marked the end of the CanCon proceeding. The CRTC will send relevant requests for information to participants with a response deadline of June 12. Final written submissions will be due June 23. hdaley@thewirereport.ca With files from The Wire Report’s archives.

Changing CanCon rules might benefit from broader consultation, CRTC panel told

Broadcast |
By Hannah Daley
| May 27, 2025

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Changing CanCon rules might benefit from broader consultation, CRTC panel told

Broadcast | By Hannah Daley | May 27, 2025

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

FREE TRIAL

SUBSCRIBE

Related Stories

CBC makes six proposals at CRTC CanCon proceeding

Any content produced, commissioned by Canadian broadcasters should count under CanCon framework, Rogers argues to CRTC

Bell vows to maintain CanCon; TLN says ethnic stations could be hurt by changes to system

Supporting Canadian composers & music in TV, movies not a ‘zero-sum game,’ CRTC hears

Reuse & Permissions

Inside The Wire Report

Information

Hill Times Publishing

Get in Touch With Us

Broadcast |
By Hannah Daley
| May 27, 2025