Senators add audience interest in broadcasting act objectives which could ease discoverability concerns

Senators voted to add a clause in Bill C-11, the Online Streaming Act, to state that Canada’s broadcasting policy goals must “reflect and be responsive to the preferences and interests of various audiences,” which Canadian Heritage department officials said could interact with discoverability requirements. Senator Donna Dasko of the Independent Senators Group, brought the motion forward Wednesday evening as the Senate’s Transportation and Communications committee continued its review of the bill. “In this description of the goals, we see a very broad and significant representation of those cultural producers, we have representation of online streamers, Canadian broadcasters, language and culture and diversity, communities are represented, independent producers and the creative sectors, including online creators… however there is no mention of the audiences,” she said. “How can we have a broadcasting system without what people want to watch and what they want to listen to and their engagement in this system,” Dasko argued. Dasko said the suggestion was brought forward by former CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein during his June testimony on the bill. Committee chair and Conservative Senator Leo Housakos Chair said the amendment helps to solve half the problems in the bill. Canadian Heritage associate assistant deputy minister for cultural affairs Thomas Owen Ripley told senators that objective can interact with the discoverability objectives in the bill – a contentious point for critics who fear it will force speech and platforms to manipulate their algorithms – by allowing stakeholders the opportunity to put forward regulatory amendments arguing its to the audiences benefit they have access to recommendation systems that feeds them their interest. Ripley also told senators that it is the government's position that the interest of all Canadians is well reflected in the act. He noted that the bill states that content must reflect local, regional and national sources; that it stipulates it must have a Canadian point of view; and reflects different attitudes, opinions, ideas, values, and artistic creativity, etc… Housakos proposed adding a sub-amendment to state audiences and consumers, the latter of which is not found throughout the bill at all. The committee spent a good portion of the meeting debating the difference between audience and consumer. “The truth of the matter is that the paying customer is nowhere to be found and I'm still profoundly disappointed by that. And I think it's just blatantly wrong,” he said. Housakos said it was “offensive” that the paying customer is sometimes forced to subscribe to channels or pay for services at the behest of the CRTC and yet they have zero input into those decisions. Ripley noted to senators that the term audience is more broad whereas consumers might put “a particular kind of lens” on the bill which focuses on costs and financial implications. The motion to add consumer to Dasko’s amendment failed. The evening ended with a motion put on the floor by Canadian Senators Group Senator Pamela Wallin to delete a clause in the bill which states that “online undertakings shall clearly promote and recommend Canadian programming, in both official languages as well as in Indigenous languages, and ensure that any means of control of the programming generates results allowing its discovery.” Wallin argued that she was putting the motion forward because she feared that the only way online undertakings would be able to meet those requirements is through algorithmic manipulation. The next committee meeting on the bill will pick up with debate on the motion. – Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca and editing by Paul Park at ppark@thewirereport.ca

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Senators add audience interest in broadcasting act objectives which could ease discoverability concerns

News | December 1, 2022

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