Streamers hope to illustrate emerging consensus on exemption orders

In an ongoing tug-of-war at the CRTC, tech giants are arguing that a level of consensus has emerged surrounding the applicable revenue threshold for registration under the newly-passed Online Streaming Act that the threshold should be applied on a “service-by-service” basis. In final replies to the regulator on a pair of consultations the commission launched in the wake of the passage of the Online Streaming Act, Alphabet Inc.’s Google argued in a July 12 submission that “there is a significant degree of consensus among many parties that the applicable revenue threshold should be applied” on a service-by-service basis. “Individual aspects of services cannot be effectively regulated if they are grouped together,” the platform wrote, pointing to arguments offered by Spotify AB. Apple Inc. noted that Rogers Communications Inc. had also supported the notion of exempting online undertakings that provide one-time rental or the purchases of individual programs (like Google’s YouTube). BCE Inc., too, in its own final reply pointed to its agreement with Rogers on a full exemption for such transactional video-on-demand (TVOD). Bell endorsed Rogers’ analogy of a bricks-and-mortar store offering movie rentals, and agreed that the CRTC had never regulated such endeavors. Bell also argued that the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) warning about broadcasting undertakings attempting to expand the TVOD exemption into subscription-based services “should be dismissed.” “The commission’s expressed intention is to exempt ‘online undertakings whose single activity and purpose consists of providing unique transactions’. Subscription-based services would not meet this class of exemption,” Bell wrote. Apple did, however, push back against some of the comments from traditional broadcasters that would have the commission apply the undue preference prohibitions and content availability requirements -- often used in traditional broadcasting and telecommunication regulation -- to the online streaming sector. “The approach proposed by these parties is based largely on misconceptions regarding online undertakings and projecting past challenges of an entrenched, structurally distinct system onto a dynamic, global and emerging landscape,” Apple wrote. “If accepted, these proposals would undermine the commission’s project of modernizing Canada’s broadcasting framework.” Specifically, Apple pointed to the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance’s (CCSA) argument that the introduction of a prohibition on undue preference is “necessary given their members’ experiences in attempting to provide their rural Canadian customers with access to certain popular online undertaking streaming services.” The CCSA’s argument, Apple contended in its July 12 final reply, is based on CCSA members’ desire to integrate online undertakings into their own systems, and not on the principle of rural access to services offered by online undertakings. When it comes to traditional broadcasters’ views of the exemption orders, Corus Entertainment Inc. took particular umbrage with the submission of the Writers Guild of Canada. The WGC and others like it, Corus argued, “wrongly exaggerate the importance of operational synergies within Canadian broadcasting groups and minimize the inequity of a group-based exemption for Canadian online undertakings. “ Rather, Corus argued that Pelmorex Weather Networks (Television) Inc. got it right when the weather broadcaster pointed out that its own operational synergies “pale in comparison to the resources that a large foreign competitor could put behind a streaming service.” “This ‘smaller’ broadcaster understands what the creative sector guild does not: even if a Canadian broadcasting ownership group could cross-promote and consolidate resources across their services to some degree, a large international media or technology company’s ability to do so is orders of magnitude greater,” Corus argued. -Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

Streamers hope to illustrate emerging consensus on exemption orders

News | July 17, 2023

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Streamers hope to illustrate emerging consensus on exemption orders

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