UPDATED: Amazon Prime ‘not anything like’ a BDU, CRTC panel told; union disagrees

Amazon.com, Inc. is looking to draw a clear line between how it does business with its Prime Video online streaming service and how traditional broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) operate. Representatives of the company expressed to a panel of CRTC commissioners Thursday, July 3 that the Prime Video service is a “reseller” of other services. Their testimony follows appearances by other parties during the commission’s ongoing proceeding on broadcast market dynamics who want the regulator to place equal regulation upon foreign streamers. Magda Grace, head of Prime Video Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, began by highlighting some of the streamer’s investments in Canadian programming and said the Prime service has content carousels showing viewers TV and movies including Canadian and Quebec TV and film and Indigenous stories. Such programming also appears on banners throughout the Prime app, on storefront carousels, and can be found via user searches. Grace said Amazon also promotes content in emails to customers, as well as via push notifications and social media. Prime now offers 39 subscriptions, including 15 from Canadian services such as OutTV and Hollywood Suite, as well as BCE Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., and Corus Entertainment Inc. Grace said one of Prime’s first partners was Corus, with which it launched the StackTV streaming service on Prime, which packages Corus’ video-on-demand content and some linear offerings. Grace baulked at the notion that Prime is similar to a traditional broadcast distribution undertaking (BDU) because of the services it offers, echoing previous arguments from streamers earlier in the proceeding. “BDUs have closed network systems, whereas we offer access through open internet networks. BDUs determine bundles available for subscription, and customers must subscribe to BDU services to access programming. In contrast, we simply resell subscription services determined by others. We also don't get the benefits of BDUs such as free retransmission of signals,” Grace said. Grace repeated the argument later in Amazon’s appearance, stating the company does not feel its service “looks anything like” a BDU operating over the internet. “I think most significantly, that we're simply a reseller of other services. We resell services that programmers package themselves and make available to our consumer base on our service. They're offered a la carte, for the most part, and customers can get access without any incremental payment. The subscriptions are offered over the open internet,” Grace said. “None of the services that we have we require to be exclusive to us.” “And then, of course, we don't have any of the regulatory benefits that BDUs have, such as getting over-the-air signals for free,” Grace said. “To summarize, I don't think we look like a BDU. We don't have the qualities of a BDU, for a variety of reasons, both in how we make content available and how we work with content providers.” When asked for Amazon’s take on whether there is an imbalance in the regulatory burden placed on BDUs versus online streamers, Grace said Prime does not believe there is evidence of any problem that requires regulatory intervention. “We are operating in an open environment where customers have an ability to get their content from pretty much anywhere, whether it's traditional BDUs or it's digital, there's more content offerings available than there have been ever before. So we don't see a need for regulatory intervention at this moment,” Grace said. Head of Amazon Music and Podcasts in Canada John Murphy said, when it comes to discoverability of programming such as Canadian content, the CRTC has to recognize that Prime is an on-demand streaming service. “We take signals from customers. There's expectation from customers who are paying and using streaming services that you open your app, it feels like it knows your taste. You can pick up listening to what you previously listened to, and it feels familiar, and there's a balance of that, and then also discovering new music,” Murphy said. “I think when we get into search and specifically kind of interfering with what customers are intending to look for and listen to, and then touching the algorithm, we think that's something that's not healthy for the customer experience, nor for the outputs that we're seeking to find. The tools that we have to find and help Canadian artists be discovered are kind of working well, and something we're always continuing to look at and see how we can optimize.” Randy Kitt, media director with the Unifor union, which represents journalists and media workers in broadcasting, urged the CRTC later Thursday not to bow to foreign streamers when it comes to regulation. Kitt disagreed that streamers are fundamentally different from BDUs. “Listening to the foreign streamers, you would think that a duck is not a duck, they are completely different, so they say. They create content, they distribute that content. They also distribute content of third-party content creators. They charge subscription fees or provide on-demand services for a fee and allow customers to choose what they want to watch when they want to watch it. This, commissioner, sounds exactly like what a vertically integrated BDU does,” Kitt said. “We must not be fooled when they ruffle their feathers and quack and claim they're not a duck.” Kitt said arguments from streamers and traditional BDUs that they already do enough to support Canadian broadcasting, meaning regulation could be decreased, are worth rejecting. “The ‘path forward’ process is meant to bring foreign digital giants under meaningful regulation and to create a regulatory system that treats all broadcasters fairly,” Kitt said. “What the commission should not do is lower the bar and erode the standards of the Canadian broadcasting system.” “The foreign digital giants purchase and create content, and they distribute their own third party content – that's a broadcaster and BDU. These platforms must contribute to the Canadian system. These contributions must be additive, because we know that deregulating the Canadian broadcast system won't achieve the foundations of the Broadcasting Act,” Kitt said. “We've also heard from both domestic and foreign players that they're already doing so much for Canadian programming and the Canadian system. So let's codify it. Let's add to it, let's measure it, and let's get it done.” “I fear that if we lessen the regulations at these hearings before seeing what we're doing…more jobs will be lost, more of the system will slip away and we won't have a Canadian system at all. We'll have an American-owned system in Canada, and I don't think that’s what we want.” Canadian broadcasters ‘embedded’ in local communities, says industry association On Friday, July 4, Canadian Association of Broadcasters president Kevin Desjardins said it is important for the CRTC to recognize that Canadian broadcasters are embedded in their communities. “They create jobs, they pay taxes here, they support local businesses through their operations and as advertising platforms. Almost all of the non-programming business expenditures of Canadian broadcasters are made in this country, and this is worth sustaining,” Dedjardins said. “The subsuming of the Canadian media marketplace by massively capitalized foreign players is not an inevitable outcome.” Desjardins said to keep the ecosystem equitable, Canadian broadcasters “cannot continue to shoulder a greater burden of obligations and regulatory constraint while foreign undertakings are allowed to simply do what is best for their business and suggest that is what is best for Canadians.” He said the association has three recommendations for action the CRTC should take. “First, ensure pride-of-place for Canadian programming services on platforms. Second, ensure fair and competitive rules of engagement, and third, modernize the CRTC’s dispute resolution resolution mechanisms.” For one, Desjardins suggested the commission adopt a “prominence rule” that makes sure Canadian content and services are prominently displayed to Canadians and require that certain Canadian services have “priority access to distribution as well as discoverability on user interfaces.” Those services would include public broadcasters, local TV stations, and local news. “We believe that through your , the commission should ask these platforms to provide clear plans for how they would carry Canadian services and demonstrable proof of any limitations they may have.” hdaley@thewirereport.ca Editor's note: This story was updated shortly after publication to include the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' remarks from July 4.

UPDATED: Amazon Prime ‘not anything like’ a BDU, CRTC panel told; union disagrees

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By Hannah Daley
| July 4, 2025

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UPDATED: Amazon Prime ‘not anything like’ a BDU, CRTC panel told; union disagrees

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