Motion Picture Association Canada agrees digital media survey should wait for C-10

The CRTC’s efforts to implement a digital media survey are premature, according to the Canadian affiliate of the Motion Picture Association, who argued that the commission should wait until the Government's update of the Broadcasting Act, known as Bill C-10 passes. The Motion Picture Association of Canada, which represents Walt Disney Studios, Netflix Inc., Sony, and Paramount among other global brands, told the CRTC in an intervention submitted Monday for the second round of consultations on the proposed digital media survey. “Legislative amendments to the Broadcasting Act that will likely be passed in the near future would allow an orderly transition that would ensure the Commission meets its overall objective of obtaining an accurate picture of the full scope of the digital media broadcasting activities in the Canadian broadcasting system,” MPA-Canada wrote. It further argued that Bill C-10 may impose other obligations for data capture, and that therefore the commission should wait to ensure it’s survey meets those requirements and that the bill would “provide respondents with the assurance that commercially sensitive and confidential information collected via the survey has been predesignated as confidential by the commission pursuant to an explicit statutory authority”. Should the commission proceed with the survey, regardless of similar concerns from other stakeholders, MPA-Canada asked that the commission only make public the aggregated data on either an industry-wide basis, or separated by Canadian and non-Canadian digital media undertakings. “The information the commission proposes to collect via the survey is detailed financial and commercial information that is highly confidential, competitively sensitive and proprietary,” MPA-Canada wrote. “Significant commercial harm could be expected if this information were to be released on the public record. This would have a potential chilling effect on further investment in digital media offerings in Canada, with consumers suffering the consequences of a more limited selection of content and choices.” It further recommended that all data collected annually, that it exclude data from the fiscal year in which it takes place and that it excludes “higher level data” such as additional top-line revenue and subscriber figures. Finally, MPA-Canada also argued that the CRTC base participation on a subscription threshold, as opposed to a revenue threshold, stating it “would be consistent with other exemption thresholds employed by the commission. More specifically, it recommended the exemption of media services with less than 300,000 subscribers, unless they see an increase to more than 350,000 subscribers for more than three consecutive months.

Motion Picture Association Canada agrees digital media survey should wait for C-10

Brief | August 10, 2021

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Motion Picture Association Canada agrees digital media survey should wait for C-10

Brief | August 10, 2021

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