Streamers want changes to C-11 while Canadian creators urge passage of bill

Multinational streaming platforms continue to decry the influence of the CRTC in the Online Streaming Act, calling for two amendments, while representatives of the Canadian music industry say Bill C-11 is needed as written to protect local content producers. The Senate Committee on Transportation and Communications continued to hold hearings into the bill Wednesday night. First to speak was Jeanettte Patell, head of Alphabet Inc.'s YouTube’s Canada government affairs and public policy. She reiterated her comments before the House of Commons Heritage committee last May. “In its current form, legal experts and civil society agree that Bill C-11 would require YouTube to surface content according to the CRTC’s priorities, rather than those of Canadians,” she told the senators. “And that hurts everyone that uses our platform. This Spring, tens of thousands of creators called on the government to fix C-11, but their efforts were ignored.” She reminded the panel of remarks made to it by CRTC chair Ian Scott last June. “The Chair of the CRTC, Ian Scott, has testified that Bill C-11 gives them the authority to regulate user-generated content, or UGC. Sections 4.2 (1) and (2) leave the question of what content is ‘in’ entirely to the discretion of the CRTC. It provides very broad criteria to ‘consider’ in advance, such as whether anyone has directly or indirectly generated revenue from that content.” That approach was disputed by a witness appearing in the second half of the proceedings. Eve Paré, executive director of l’association québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la vidéo (ADISQ) asserted that C-11 does not give the commission too much power. She did recommend that the regulator reintroduce public hearings and allow for appeals to the governor in council. Another streaming giant, TikTok, aligned itself with YouTube. Steve de Eyre, director of public policy and government affairs Canada for the service, cautioned that good intentions were not spelled out in the language of the bill. “We’re concerned that Bill C-11 will hurt, rather than help, these content creators who are just getting started.” he stated. “As written, this bill could subject them to burdensome regulation and give an unfair advantage to established media voices over independent creators.” He also called for amendments to 4.1 and 4.2 and to section 9.1. The last provision gives the CRTC a number of powers to determine the conditions by which Canadian content is made discoverable on broadcast undertakings. There were measures to protect user generated content in the original version of the bill, C-10, which died on the order paper of the previous Parliament when last year’s election was called. These have been removed from the updated version of the legislation, he noted. Rounding out the first hour of the hearings was Patrick Rogers, CEO of Music Canada, which represents foreign-owned music companies. While supportive of the core principles of the bill generally, he said the current provisions give the CRTC too much wiggle room and called for changes to section 9.1. Excesses in the legislation could drive away the audience. “If that experience is interrupted, the music industry knows that listeners will go elsewhere,” Rogers warned. “Those places will likely be unlicenced and unregulated. That flies in the face of everything this bill hopes to achieve.” During the question period, Patell said YouTube’s suggested changes to 4.1 and 4.2 would guarantee that a song by the Weeknd would continue to fall under the bill if it was made available under the same conditions as it would be on Spotify. “What it would also do, however, is to ensure that if any of you senators were to do a dance challenge—which I encourage you to do—or a cover song of that same music, that that would not be subject to the act,” she stated. The senators were engaged in the discussion, running 10 minutes over the allotted time. Even with that extension, they did not get to a second round of questions for the international witnesses. The second part of the hearings was devoted to testimony from homegrown stakeholders. Andrew Cash, president and CEO of the Canadian Independent Music Association, said sustainability and development of an international following is key for Canadian performers. “We applaud anything in this bill that successfully helps facilitate these goals,” Cash, a former NDP member of parliament, told the panel. “That said, there are real opportunities here for our artists if we get this right, and serious ramifications if we get it wrong. An outcome that results in Canadian artists locked into Canadian-only playlists and a Canadian-only digital ecosystem would be unacceptable.” Jérôme Payette, executive director of l’association des professionnels de l’édition musicale, which represents music publishers in Quebec, said the legislation is desperately needed. “The lack of regulation of online businesses is having a major impact on Canadian music, particularly francophone music,” he asserted. “In practice this means that platforms make their own rules based on their financial interests. But our market is too small to make this sustainable for our culture.” The amount of money francophone artists in Quebec draw from all sources of revenue has been declining since 2016, he told the Senate committee. Much of the opposition to the bill is spearheaded by third parties with conflicts of interests, he maintained. Digital First receives funding from YouTube and TikTok while Open Media gets money from Google, Payette said. ADISQ’s Paré pointed out that the original Canadian content rules of the 1970s helped establish a star system in Quebec. It is time for new technologies to come under that umbrella. “We would like to make some recommendations to ensure that the bill addresses the inequity that undermines our ecosystem. This balance that we are calling for must not lead to weakening of the obligations of traditional media but rather must impose on all players in the system a strong objective of using Canadian resources,” she stated. –Reporting by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca

Streamers want changes to C-11 while Canadian creators urge passage of bill

Broadcast | September 22, 2022

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