Roundup: CRTC Sets Off a Storm With CanCon Streaming Rules
Plus: Google is ending search as we know it, private equity may be eyeing IMAX and a battle over tire recycling erupts in Ontario
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We’ve admittedly been a little quiet on the breaking news front of late, but that’s because I’ve been busy working on some behind-the-scenes business plumbing. Lots of exciting news coming on this front very soon – and of course, lots of good scoops coming too!
In the meantime, let’s get to this week’s competition news roundup…
The CRTC released another big decision this week that, as per usual, isn’t likely to win many fans beyond Canada’s big telecom companies.
On Thursday, the regulator finally unveiled rules to go with the Online Streaming Act, passed by the Trudeau government in 2023, which map out how U.S. streaming companies are to contribute to Canadian content.
In a nutshell, the likes of Netflix, Amazon and Apple will now be required to contribute 15 per cent of their revenues in Canada to the creation of Canadian movies, television and local news, up from the interim 5 per cent previously set by the CRTC.
At the same time, traditional Canadian broadcasters such as CTV and CityTV, owned by Bell and Rogers respectively, are seeing their CanCon contribution requirements lowered to 25 per cent, from a range of between 30 and 45 per cent.
Portions of the streamers’ funding will also go to “enhanced partnerships” that will require them to co-produce content where the majority of the copyright will be held by a Canadian company.
This partial levelling of the field – which the CRTC calls “recalibrating” – will result in CanCon funding of about $2 billion a year, according to the regulator.
To say that sparks are already flying would be an understatement. The major streaming platforms, which in 2024 launched a court challenge of the interim 5-per-cent levy, wasted no time in blasting Thursday’s decision.
The ruling is “unprecedented, unnecessary and discriminatory” and violates Canada’s obligations under the United States Mexico Canada Agreement, according to the Motion Picture Association, which represents Netflix, Disney, Sony, Universal and others. “We urge the Canadian government to reconsider this approach.”
University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist, a long-time critic of the Online News Act, says the 15-per-cent requirement makes Canada “among the most expensive operating jurisdictions in the world for streaming services, with consequences that will undoubtedly affect consumer streaming prices.” Europe, for example, has funding requirements ranging from 0.5 per of local revenues to 6 per cent.
As former CRTC commissioner and fellow long-time Online News Act critic Peter Menzies points out, Culture Minister Marc Miller is already signalling that the government might reject the decision:
There’s a lot more intrigue surrounding this ruling besides the above. For one thing, there’s the length of time it took.
After the Online News Act took effect in June 2023, CRTC chair Vicky Eatrides said she expected to have the regulations around it implemented by the end of 2024. With no rules in sight, Miller last month admonished the regulator for taking so long, saying that he was “disappointed that the CRTC is not moving faster to fully implement the Online Streaming Act, a law that ensures online streamers pay their fair share.”
This tardiness is de rigueur for the CRTC, with several key telecom decisions also taking excessively long – as we’ve noted here before, independent internet providers have been waiting years for the final wholesale access rates that are integral to their business.
It’s a fair question then, to wonder just what the heck is going on with the CRTC, which is exactly what the Canadian Internet Society said back in March when it called for an overhaul of the regulator.
There are also the sovereignty and trade aspects to this decision. While the government and the CRTC have both touted the Online Streaming Act as an important tool in building and maintaining Canada’s cultural sovereignty, it’s also serving as a major irritant in larger trade negotiations with the United States.
That friction was squarely behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s quick scrapping of the Digital Services Tax last year, which would have raised streaming costs for consumers.
As Geist points out, the government is sending what can charitably be referred to as confusing signals here. On the one hand, the feds are demanding that U.S. streamers pay their fair share and they’re chiding the sluggish CRTC, while at the same time they’re also bending to trade threats and possible consumer blowback.
To reiterate the point off the top, the only ones who are likely to be happy with this decision are Canada’s big combo telecom-broadcasters, who have been lobbying to pay less into CanCon production since time immemorial.
That said, they’re probably still mad because their required contributions haven’t been reduced to zero.
🎧 ON THE PODCAST THIS WEEK:
🕺 ENTERTAINMENT
Mississauga, Ont.-based IMAX may be up for sale, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The large-format film company has had preliminary talks with buyers through intermediaries, though no official pitches have been made. IMAX is on fire lately, with its large-format films posting a record $1.28 billion (U.S.) at the box office last year, up 40 per cent over a year earlier. CNBC pegs private equity as perhaps the likeliest buyer, since there would be no apparent competition issues – like those the Paramount-Warner Bros. deal is mired in. Netflix, Apple and Sony could also be candidates.
The 33 U.S. states that successfully won their antitrust trial against LIVE NATION last month are asking courts to break up the company and order compensation for fans as part of the punishment phase of the ongoing case. The plaintiffs want TICKETMASTER spun off, with tight controls on how that company could then interact with its former parent. The states also want details of Live Nation’s controversial settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, which originally brought the antitrust case, to be made public. For its part, the company wants last month’s ruling thrown out in favour of a new trial. Live Nation says the jury ignored evidence and made errors when it found that it illegally coerced artists and venues into using Ticketmaster.
🏈 SPORTS & LEISURE
Is the duopolized North American ski business under-investing in its resorts? Yes, according to a study by YouTuber SnowStash, who found that operators in the four major European ski countries – Italy, France, Austria and Switzerland – spent $1.09 billion (U.S.) on new lift installations during the 2025/26 season while their counterparts in the United States and Canada spent just $317 million combined. The biggest culprit in this under-investment, according to SnowStash, is Colorado-based VAIL RESORTS, which spent $225 million on capital investments while returning $595 million to shareholders through buybacks and dividends. Privately owned rival ALTERRA MOUNTAIN, also based in Colorado, spent closer to European standards, with approximately 20 to 25 per cent of revenue going back into improving operations. Vail is the largest resort operator in North America, owning nearly 40 on the continent including Whistler-Blackcomb in British Columbia. Alterra is the second largest with nearly 20 properties, including Blue Mountain in Ontario and Mont Tremblant in Quebec.
💾 BIG TECH
GOOGLE search may be coming to an end, at least as we’ve come to know it. At its annual developer conference this week, the company said it is overhauling its results in a way that will favour a personalized AI-powered box rather than its standard search bar, with “information agents” being dispatched to find answers to user queries. While the AI mode won’t be the default, users will be encouraged to ask follow-up questions rather than scrolling down to the traditional blue links. Pundits are pointing out the possible downsides to this change, with Business Insider saying that “a personalized internet isn’t the internet,” while Gizmodo says “Google is actively trashing its flagship Search product in pursuit of pumping as much AI slop into it as possible.”
🛞 TIRES
The gloves are off in the Ontario tire business with an independent hauler filing a complaint with the Competition Tribunal against a recycling management company. ALL STAR TRANSPORTATION AND TIRE RECYCLING, based in the Hamilton area, is arguing that Oakville-based ETRACKS TIRE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS has cornered the market on recycling in the province, controlling 90 per cent of processors. All Star’s owner Scott Cavanaugh alleges that eTracks used that dominance to kill his business after he made comments to the press last year about its market power. When reached, Cavanaugh declined to comment further on the filing before the Tribunal accepts it. eTracks did not return a request for comment.
🚜 FARMING
The Competition Bureau has arranged a grain elevator deal with PARRISH & HEIMBECKER in its proposed acquisition of GRAINSCONNECT CANADA. The Bureau was concerned that the acquisition by Winnipeg-based P&H of Calgary-based GrainsConnect would reduce competition for the purchase of wheat from farmers in the region around Reford, Sask. P&H has thus agreed to sell the grain elevator business it is acquiring to a buyer approved by the Bureau.
🛒 GROCERIES
The Public Interest Advocacy Centre is calling on policy makers to kill real estate deals that allow large grocers such as LOBLAWS and SOBEYS to limit competition. These restrictive covenants, which we covered on the podcast recently, include a variety of anti-competitive limitations such as preventing other grocery stores from opening near an existing one, and new ones from springing up when others close down. The report from the consumer advocacy group also calls for the creation of a national registry of all such covenants so that the public can be informed of the some of the key factors limiting grocery competition in their neighbourhoods.
🚨 COMING UP
Speaking of groceries, did you get your $49.11 cheque yet? Class-action payouts for Breadgate – the price-fixing scheme in which Loblaw and others conspired to raise the price of bread – are now in progress. Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project executive director KELDON BESTER joins the podcast this Tuesday to discuss the long, arduous road to the payouts, and how it has done little to improve the grocery situation in Canada.