GATINEAU — The CRTC announced last week it is reopening a proceeding regarding a proposed annual digital media survey, saying it now wants the survey to be administered to both Canadian and foreign digital media broadcasting undertakings (a.k.a. streamers) alike.
When the proceeding was first launched in March 2019, the CRTC said its intention was to apply the annual survey to all currently licensed Canadian broadcasting undertakings to collect financial information on their digital media broadcasting activities. At the time, the CRTC said the survey would not be administered to non-Canadian digital media broadcasting companies that provide services in Canada, or to any Canadian digital media broadcasting undertakings that are not associated with a licensed Canadian undertaking.
A significant number of Canadian broadcasters responded to the Commission’s call for comments in the spring of 2019, all arguing the survey should be applied equally to all digital media undertakings operating in Canada, including those who are licensed and exempt, Canadian and foreign, in order to capture the full scope of these activities in the Canadian broadcasting system. Some of the foreign digital service providers mentioned in interventions submitted by Canadian broadcasters included Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, DAZN, Apple TV Plus and Disney+ (the last two of which had not yet launched at that time).
A number of interveners also raised concerns about the commercially sensitive nature of some of the data to be collected in the proposed survey form.
On June 30, 2021, the CRTC announced a new call for comments on the annual digital media survey, saying it considered it necessary to expand the scope of its review and seek comment on proposed modifications to the survey and to its administration, which would now include administering the survey to non-Canadian undertakings operating under the Exemption order for digital media broadcasting undertakings.
The CRTC plans to begin administering the annual digital media survey in fall 2021 and there’s no way of knowing at this time if the foreign streamers will take part, although we have asked Netflix and Amazon for comment.
Update: Netflix, through a spokesperson, declined comment.
The deadline for interventions to the reopened proceeding is July 30, 2021. Replies are due by August 9, 2021.
The public record for the proceeding, including interventions and replies to the original call for comments in March 2019, can be found here.
