Netflix should be regulated according to a trade union

AFP

Guillaume St-Pierre

Friday, 16 February 2018 17:23

UPDATE
Friday, 16 February 2018 17:23

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OTTAWA-A major trade union urges Ottawa to put an end to the “patronage” means, in respect of new broadcasting platforms such as YouTube and Netflix by subjecting them to the same rules as conventional broadcasters.

The CRTC decided in 1999 not to bring digital media to the same strict framework that is imposed on canadian broadcasters such as TVA, V, or Radio-Canada.

Netflix, YouTube, Facebook or Twitter, can therefore broadcast today without constraint none of their content in Canada through this old decision that the union describes as “obsolete”.

“It gives them a competitive advantage now,” laments a member of the canadian union of the public service and provincial president of the Syndicat des employé(e)s de TVA, Réjean Beaudet.

“The purpose of canadian law is to provide original content for canada that we have a culture distinct from that of the Americans. What the government is doing, currently, is to abdicate its sovereignty, and cultural and media”, plague there.

Two-tier system

The Council of radio-television and telecommunications commission (CRTC) decided in 1999 to exempt broadcasters, in the line of coercion.

The federal government had decided at the time by noting that the “new media” are not a threat to canadian broadcasters.

But times have changed and it is now time to revise the rules of the game, says the union, a figure in support.

Since 2014, for example, Canadians are more likely to be subscribers to an internet service that the cable.

In terms of advertising revenues to digital, the union believes that Facebook and Google bag alone account for more than half of the cake.

The change of the media landscape has effects be very practical for canadian broadcasters. In VAT, more than 200 posts have been deleted in the past four years.

Meanwhile, Netflix continues its progression, without any condition of licence.

“The situation of conventional broadcasters is precarious. The two-tier system has gone on long enough,” says Mr. Beaudet.