Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is demanding Prime Minister Mark Carney step in and overrule the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) as it forces mostly American web giants pay more to fund homegrown media content. In an interview with CBC News, Poilievre said the CRTC's decision to triple the revenue streaming firms like Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime must set aside to fund Canadian programming is akin to a tax on consumers and cannot stand. "This will be a consumer tax, it will all be passed on. Let's not be naive and pretend that the web giants or the streamers are just going to absorb it. Of course they're going to make Canadians pay more," Poilievre said ... CLICK HERE for the full story  

Sometime early in the new year, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is expected to cross its fingers and issue a decision that will define how Canadians can watch streamed content and, probably, how much more they’ll inevitably have to pay for it. And it will do so with a small prayer that its ongoing efforts to outsource the burden of funding for the Canadian film and television industry to Netflix and the other U.S. streaming giants won’t make U.S. President Donald Trump any more grumpy than he already is and trigger retaliatory action against Canada for picking on American companies. This will be the second major announcement from the CRTC. A couple of weeks ago, Nov. 18 to be precise, the federal regulator announced a new method of defining Canadian content (Cancon). That was the first of two decisions stemming from a wide-ranging consultation and the second, which it said will be published “in the near future,” involves spending and prioritizing ...