Global Streaming Giants Call On Canadian Court To Shelve Streaming Levy

deadline.com:

The global streaming giants have called on a Canadian court to stop plans to introduce a 5% levy to pay for local programs.

The Motion Picture Association-Canada (MPA-Canada), which represents the likes of Netflix, Paramount and Disney, has claimed in a court filing the requirement “is a discriminatory measure that goes far beyond what Parliament intended.” It claims this “exceeds” regulator CRTC‘s authority and fails to recognize billions of dollars of annual spend in Canada.

Notably, the MPA-Canada claims the global studios and streaming services spend more than C$6.7B producing content in Canada for local and international audiences and invested more content from Canadian production companies last year than pubcaster the CBC, or the Canada Media Fund and Telefilm combined. “Our members’ streaming services do not produce local news nor are they granted the significant legal privileges and protections enjoyed by Canadian broadcasters in exchange for the responsibility to provide local news,” said Wendy Noss, President of the MPA–Canada.

The CRTC has previously said the levy, which is part of the controversial C-11 Bill, would come into effect in September, enforcing on streamers the need to invest 5% of their local revenues into a fund that would pay for local news.