CPAC, CBC want prominence, support from online streaming platforms

CBC/Radio Canada kicked off the final week of the CRTC’s hearing on broadcast market dynamics by suggesting more should be done to get Canadian content proper placement on online broadcast platforms. Bev Kirshenblatt, executive director of corporate and regulatory affairs at CBC, told the commission panel Wednesday, July 2 that despite many Canadians having access to online broadcast undertakings, “there are no requirements for these platforms to carry, promote or prioritize Canadian content or services on their user interfaces.” Kirshenblatt said the same goes for smart devices, including speakers and TVs. “Gatekeepers in this digital environment are enormous, global corporate conglomerates, smart TV companies such as Samsung, LG, and Sony are not present at this hearing, and yet they exert an enormous and perhaps hidden impact on the Canadian marketplace,” Kirshenblatt said in French, according to a translation. “Giants like Google, Apple, and Amazon are even larger and wield tremendous influence in this country. And none of these companies Canadian, and to this date, they have been free to grant access, privilege, and prominence to whomever they choose.” CBC made several recommendations to the CRTC, including that the commission decide to require certain online undertakings to follow mandatory distribution rules under the Broadcasting Act, meaning certain programming would have to be made available to Canadians using those services. It suggested that the CRTC come up with criteria for which programming services would have to be made available to viewers by the online undertakings. Kirshenblatt pitched that the CRTC could put out a call for application from programming services seeking mandatory distribution on online undertakings. Then, the CRTC could publish an “initial set” of distribution orders ahead of the tailored conditions of service consultation expected later this year. “Proponents of these programming services would presumably use the time leading up to the tailored conditions of service proceeding to undertake good faith negotiations to establish the terms and conditions of their access to online undertakings,” Kirshenblatt said. Then, as part of the study, each side could jointly file requests to include a given programming service in individual online undertakings’ conditions of service, she said. “This approach would result in Canadians gaining online access to programming services of exceptional importance to Canada's national identity and cultural sovereignty in an orderly fashion and without undue delay,” Kirshenblatt said. Cable Public Affairs Channel Inc. (CPAC) CEO Christa Dickenson also raised support for services of exceptional importance Wednesday. CPAC’s funding has long come from wholesale fees paid by traditional broadcast undertakings, Dickinson said. With the Online Streaming Act recognizing the role streamers play in the modern broadcasting industry, “it is time for this sector to support the services such as CPAC that are considered to be of exceptional importance to the achievement of broadcasting policy objectives,” said Dickenson Dickenson said CPAC supports the creation of a fund for “services of exceptional importance,” which was also pitched by the Independent Broadcast Group earlier in the hearing. The proposed fund would gather money from players in the online sector and distribute it to eligible recipients. “Ideally, the fund would be as frictionless as possible and based on a funding model set by the commission,” Dickenson said. Establishing the fund “would create a more equitable framework for the financial contributions that make these services possible, to balance the contributions made by Canadian BDUs for many years,” Dickenson said, adding that CPAC believes it is a “relatively straightforward and fair mechanism.” Contributing to the fund would be streamers with annual revenues of more than $25 million in annual revenues, requiring them to contribute 2.5 per cent of that revenue. “CPAC spends so much time just looking at sustainability and I'd like to be focusing instead on our mandate and being able to reach more and more Canadians where they're watching their content,” Dickenson said. Chief operating officer Jeremy Clark said CPAC has had “introductory, exploratory calls” with some online undertakings. “These are organizations who are looking for commercial services – their business models are based on a revenue share…So when you introduce a station like CPAC that is fully non-commercial, we have no revenue to share,” Clark said, adding that it is similar with FAST (free advertising-supported streaming television) channels and connected devices. “We don't have an app right now. We had an app many years ago, it was shuttered in 2018 largely due to costs. That's something that, with new revenues, we would obviously create an app so that we'd be more accessible to get onto some of these platforms. But that's a fairly expensive proposition for us,” Clark said. He said CPAC would have to make it available in both French and English. The Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) told the panel that producers navigate skewed market dynamics every day. It suggested there needs to be a mechanism for producers to feel safe filing undue preference claims to the CRTC. While it is a key enforcement tool, CMPA vice president Alain Strati said, it has not come without its problems. The group wants to see a means of raising such matters “without the fear of reprisal.” “No producer is going to file an undue preference complaint individually. It will never happen, because they would be concerned that that particular buyer will never pick up one of their shows again. That's why, as part of our submissions, we're proposing filing part one via a class mechanism, so that there's not any one individual producer who feels that they are putting their business at risk by filing an undue preference complaint individually,” Strati said. The CMPA said its members could then bring their concerns to the association, which can aggregate related data and present it to the CRTC in a filing it would make on their behalf. hdaley@thewirereport.ca

CPAC, CBC want prominence, support from online streaming platforms

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By Hannah Daley
| July 3, 2025

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