Online streamers should direct 2% of Canadian revenues to local content: Rogers | CityNews Calgary

Online streaming giants must be pressured to contribute two per cent of their annual Canadian income to assist Canadian and Indigenous content material and assist degree the taking part in area for native broadcasters, executives from Rogers Communications Inc. instructed a CRTC listening to Tuesday.

The Toronto-based media and telecommunications firm mentioned Rogers and its Canadian opponents are being held again by a “kind of oppressive” regulatory construction that doesn’t apply the identical guidelines to newer digital corporations which have disrupted the trade.

In the short-term, it urged the fee to determine a short lived news fund to assist subsidize personal TV and radio news stations utilizing 30 per cent of the contributions it desires these on-line companies to make.

“We operate in a heavy … regulatory environment on news,” Rogers Sports and Media president Colette Watson mentioned.

“It’s really difficult to keep planning for the future when we’re stuck in 1995 with a framework.”

The firm’s presentation got here within the second week of the federal broadcasting regulator’s public consultations in response to the Online Streaming Act, which acquired royal assent in April.

It is supposed to replace federal laws to require digital platforms corresponding to Netflix, YouTube and TikTok to contribute to and promote Canadian content material.

The fee is exploring whether or not streaming companies must be requested to make an preliminary contribution to the Canadian content material system and if this may assist present equal footing for native corporations, that are already required to assist Canadian content material.

Dean Shaikh, Rogers senior vice-president of regulatory affairs, mentioned the corporate is dropping subscribers and audiences to on-line opponents.

“The outcome we want here is that we can compete with online streamers,” he instructed fee panellists.

“We’re not looking for protections, we’re looking for the same flexibility that might be provided to the online streamers.”

He mentioned Ottawa’s passage of the Online Streaming Act, and the regulation’s implementation being hammered out by the regulator, “presents a long overdue path to modernizing Canada’s broadcasting regulatory framework.”

“Our proposal is premised on the clear expectation that the commission will take meaningful steps to lighten Canadian ownership groups’ direct financial obligations,” Shaikh mentioned.

“It is no longer fair or sustainable for Canada’s broadcasting industry to be the primary source of funding for all stakeholders in the system.”

Rogers’ proposed two per cent contribution would apply to “foreign and unaffiliated Canadian online undertakings that are having a material impact on the Canadian broadcasting system.” It outlined these as on-line video and audio streamers making not less than $50 million and $25 million, respectively, in annual Canadian revenues.

The firm clarified it’s not searching for any mandated contribution to use to social media creators, however reasonably the platforms internet hosting them.

Shaikh additionally mentioned Rogers shouldn’t be essentially hoping the CRTC’s evaluation will end in “hundreds of millions of dollars in new direct subsidized funding of Canadian content production.” While he mentioned that’s not an space of disaster for the corporate, its native news division is in a extra dire scenario.

“The importance of local news cannot be overstated,” he instructed the fee.

“Not only is it critical to our democracy, but it actually is a key differentiator between the traditional system and the online system. It’s one of the things that we hope will keep Canadians within the system.”

That echoed a presentation final week by Bell Media-owner BCE Inc., which additionally known as for the CRTC to create a news fund offering cash to broadcasters via contributions from international streamers.

Last month, Rogers closed its CityNews Ottawa radio station and laid off newsroom employees, citing dwindling audiences and regulatory challenges.

The CRTC listening to, which is predicted to take three weeks, is ready to listen to from corporations corresponding to Spotify, Netflix and Amazon within the coming days.

This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Nov. 28, 2023.

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Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Press