(Visual: Naomi Wildeboer/Hill Times Publishing)
BREAKING: Streamers refuse to make scheduled ‘Cancon’ payments under Online Streaming Act
Broadcast | |September 2, 2026
Canada’s leading cultural organizations have been told they will not receive any new funding from major U.S. streaming companies after Ottawa signalled a policy reversal under the Online Streaming Act.
Following a CRTC decision in 2024, Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Apple Inc., and other streamers are required to allocate five per cent of domestic revenues each year to the Canada Media Fund, Independent Local News Fund, and Indigenous Screen Office Fund, among other entities.
Some of the eligible companies, including the aforementioned streamers, Spotify AB, Paramount, Pluto Inc., and the Texas-based company CrunchyRoll, challenged the policy in the Federal Court of Appeal and won a stay on funding, meaning they were no longer bound by the annual Aug. 31 payment deadline.
Analysis from the Computer and Communications Industry Association (of which several of these companies are members) suggests Walt Disney Co. (through Disney+), Roku Inc., Fox Corp.’s Tubi, and Alphabet Inc. (through YouTube) could be captured by the rules, which were expected to generate billions for Canada’s cultural ecosystem.
Several companies proceeded with the initial payment to cultural groups last year, despite winning the stay.
However, funding agencies were recently informed by Welch LLP, an Ottawa-based accounting firm tasked with administering the payments, that there would be no new transfers by the Aug. 31 deadline.
“We were told by the administrator… that no new money will be coming in,” said Kevin Desjardins, president of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which administers the Independent Local News Fund.
“I would say that if there are streamers that were not covered by the Federal Court of Appeal’s stay and decided not to [make payments], those streamers would be offside.”
A representative from Welch Fund Administration Services Inc., an arm of the accounting firm, declined to comment due to client confidentiality.
Multiple funding agencies did not respond to a request for comment.
As first reported by The Wire Report, the Liberal government has quietly outlined plans to eliminate the five per cent contribution requirement, instead replacing it with $600-million in public funding.
Canadian Identity Minister Marc Miller (Ville-Marie—Le Sud-Ouest—Île-des-Sœurs, Que.) also asked the CRTC to review a recent decision that would have upped the streamer contribution threshold to 15 per cent of annual revenues, which some viewed as a shift away from the Online Streaming Act rules introduced by Justin Trudeau’s government.
However, others framed the pivot as a concession to the U.S. as part of monthslong bilateral trade discussions with the White House. It remains unclear whether Ottawa plans to maintain the pre-existing streamer policy after negotiations abruptly collapsed last month.
Prime Minister Mark Carney (Nepean, Ont.) has promised to bring forward a new policy direction to guide the CRTC’s implementation of the Online Streaming Act, but Miller’s office did not immediately respond to questions regarding the policy direction’s content or timeline.
Meanwhile, the Federal Court of Appeal has yet to rule on the challenge facing the CRTC’s original five per cent decision, adding another element of uncertainty to the proceedings.
