The CRTC plan says that implementing the new regulatory framework for the online streaming act will start in late 2025, which is when it will finalize how much online streaming services and traditional broadcasters will have to pay to support the creation of Canadian and Indigenous content.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The timetable for implementing the online streaming act has been delayed by a year, according to a new regulatory plan published by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
The CRTC’s plan says consultations will continue into 2026, with the target launch for implementing the new regulatory framework delayed until late 2025.
The delay has been greeted with dismay by industry experts who questioned why the CRTC’s original timetable has been extended.
“The CRTC told Parliament and Canadians in May, 2023, that it would be implementing Canada’s new broadcasting legislation by the end of this year,” said Monica Auer, executive director of the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications.
“The many, many cultural organizations and broadcasting companies that were counting on the CRTC to complete its important work this year might now be wondering what’s happened: why has the CRTC apparently dropped several key proceedings and why is it postponing others for a year or more?”
The online streaming act will make platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Spotify promote Canadian TV, film or music and contribute financially to their production alongside traditional broadcasters.
The CRTC plan says that implementing the new regulatory framework will start in late 2025, which is when it will finalize how much online streaming services and traditional broadcasters will have to pay to support the creation of Canadian and Indigenous content.
But the consultations will continue. In the winter of 2025-2026, from December to March, the CRTC plans to carry out consultations on inclusion and diversity, the new timetable says.
In the spring of 2026, a consultation will look at the rules governing CRTC proceedings to make them easier to understand and more efficient.
The next election must take place before or on Oct. 20, 2025.
Broadcasters and members of Canada’s creative industries, during Bill C-11′s passage through Parliament, called for the bill to be swiftly passed to help Canada’s broadcasters and film, TV and music industry.
The Liberals blamed the Conservatives for delaying Bill C-11′s progress by filibustering in debates and committees. The bill was sharply opposed by digital creators, and criticized by YouTube, but gained royal assent last April after being shepherded through the Commons by the then heritage minister, Pablo Rodriguez.
It was welcomed by broadcasters, which complained that foreign streaming giants have an advantage over them with fewer regulations. Members of Canada’s TV, music and film industry, especially in Quebec, also backed the bill, which would make streaming platforms promote Canadian content and support it financially.
The CRTC, an independent regulator, is in charge of implementing the act and drawing up a regulatory framework.
It is carrying out a series of consultations and public hearings on aspects of the bill, including on an updated definition of a Canadian film, TV program or piece of music.
The CRTC told The Globe it plans to make decisions while the consultation process is going on and will not wait until the very end to act. It said by 2026 the central features of the new broadcasting framework would be complete.
“The Online Streaming Act and the Policy Direction are both complex and multi-faceted, and we have announced an ambitious set of public hearings and proceedings to address all of the elements they contain,” said Leigh Cameron, a spokesperson. “The CRTC anticipates that by 2026 it will have both had the opportunity to consult widely with Canadians and to have put in place the key elements of the new broadcasting framework.”
The new regulatory plan says by this summer it should publish the list of registered online streaming services, and publish a decision on the initial financial contributions streaming services must make to Canada’s broadcasting system.
Next spring it plans to consult on the definition of Canadian content for television and online programming, which is crucial to deciding which music in Canada as well as TV and film will be promoted and supported financially.
Mr. Rodriguez asked the CRTC to modernize the definition of Canadian content.
Spotify says its playlists already promote a variety of Canadian music to listeners here and abroad, even though some of it would not count as Canadian under the current definition of a Canadian song. It said defining Canadian content should be considered early on in the CRTC’s program.
“With the revised timeline on the implementation of the Act, there is a renewed opportunity for the CRTC to proceed in the right order and prioritize updating the definition of Canadian Content to include all Canadian and Indigenous music, as it was directed by the Trudeau government,” said Xenia Manning, director of global music policy for Spotify.