Flap Them Elbows

Stephen Taylor;

On May 21, the CRTC issued Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2026-96, ordering Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, Apple TV+, Spotify, and every other major streaming platform operating in Canada to hand over 15% of their Canadian revenues. The money will be distributed to Canadian content funds, news organizations, French-language production, and Indigenous media through a complex allocation framework that the CRTC alone will administer. […]

Within twenty-four hours, the Motion Picture Association — representing Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Sony Pictures, Universal, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, and Warner Bros. Discovery — issued its strongest condemnation of a Canadian regulatory decision in the organization’s history[…]

The U.S. Ambassador to Canada followed. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce followed. A Congressional bill threatening Section 301 retaliation was already in play. The CUSMA joint review deadline is July 1. And Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller — whose government created the Online Streaming Act — responded by distancing himself from his own regulator, saying he was “reviewing” the decision and “carefully assessing its impacts.”

The CRTC picked this fight six weeks before the most consequential trade negotiation in a generation. It tripled a levy that is already being challenged in Federal Court. It did so to protect an industry that has never been more profitable. And the Canadian government is now pretending it had nothing to do with it.