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OTTAWA — Ottawa is directing the CRTC to back down on its recent decision to triple streamers’ financial contributions to Canadian content, and will instead provide $600 million to the sector, Culture Minister Marc Miller said Wednesday.
The decision comes after the Motion Picture Association, the U.S. group representing streamers, called on cabinet to reconsider the current approach and the U.S. ambassador to Canada called for the policy to be rescinded.
The CRTC said in May it would require large streaming services like Netflix to contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content. It made the decision as part of its work to implement the Online Streaming Act.
“The CRTC’s new requirements would impose new costs on the companies providing these services, which could ultimately fall on Canadian consumers through higher prices,” the government said in a press release.
“At a time when Canadians face cost-of-living pressure, now is not the time to make culture and entertainment more expensive.”
Miller told reporters on Parliament Hill the fact that the U.S. has identified the Online Streaming Act as a trade irritant wasn’t the only reason the government asked the CRTC to change course.
“It’s no secret to anyone that’s been paying any attention to this that the USTR has identified these issues as a trade issue. It would be disingenuous to suggest that this is the single issue,” he said.
“The reality is we’re impatient to make sure that the sector stays vital and stays supported, and that’s why we’re making that investment of $600 million into the industry.”
Miller said the industry is suffering while money for Canadian content is frozen in litigation.
In 2024, the CRTC made an initial order under the Online Streaming Act requiring large streaming companies to pay five per cent of their annual Canadian revenues to funds devoted to producing Canadian content, including local TV news.
The Federal Court of Appeal put a pause on the payments – which are estimated at roughly $1.25 million annually per company – and has not yet issued a decision.
It’s not clear what the government’s announcement Wednesday means for two years’ worth of decisions the CRTC has made to implement the Online Streaming Act under the previous policy direction.
Under the Broadcasting Act, cabinet does not have the authority to overturn the specific decision on streamers’ contributions. It must instead direct the CRTC on how to broadly implement the Online Streaming Act.
The government said Wednesday Ottawa will issue a new policy direction to the CRTC to adjust how it is implementing the Online Streaming Act.
Monica Auer, a lawyer and executive director of the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, has told The Canadian Press that if cabinet wants to issue a policy direction saying the CRTC shouldn’t implement the decision on streamers’ financial contributions, it has to first cancel its 2023 order directing the commission on how to implement the Online Streaming Act.
The work the CRTC has done since 2023 to implement the Online Streaming Act has happened under that previous policy direction.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2026.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
