Media Beat: Netflix Challenges Canada's Online Streaming Rules
This week's column has a hodgepodge of stories, including Anthem's acquisition of Canadian TV channels Hollywood Suite, AI in Elections and more.
Hollywood Suite Teams Up With Leonard Asper
Anthem Sports & Entertainment said it has agreed to buy Hollywood Suite, which owns and operates four linear TV channels in Canada. The acquisition would double the number of channels Anthem offers to Canadian viewers. Financial terms were not disclosed. Hollywood Suite launched in 2011 and bills itself as “the largest pure-play movie service in Canada,” with a reach of over 10M homes through providers such as Rogers, Bell and Prime Video. The networks are available in about 10M homes via distributors including Rogers Communications, Bell, Telus, Amazon Prime Video, Cogeco, Eastlink and Freedom Mobile. Hollywood Suite will continue to be managed by its co-founder and president, David Kines.
Netflix Joins Meta In Fighting Canadian Government’s Online Streaming Rules
Netflix Canada has halted its sponsorship of arts organizations, as per the Globe and Mail. Since 2017, Netflix has invested over $25M in initiatives supporting Canadian creators. The hiccup comes after new CRTC regs under the Online Streaming Act that now require foreign streaming services to contribute 5% of Canadian revenues to local production. Netflix has challenged these rules and stated it must redirect resources to comply with the new requirements. In reaction to the news earlier this week, Ottawa Law Professor, Michael Geist stated that “the government and Bills C-11/C-18 supporters dismissed the legislative risks as 'bluffing' and thought that hundreds of millions in new mandated payments would be consequence-free. Instead, Canada is left with blocked news links, cancelled deals, and lost sponsorship money.”
AI In Elections
The U.S. broadcast regulator has filed proposals for regulations that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in television and radio ads, but in Canada, there is no specific body adjudicating usage of synthetic political advertising, and a recent Canadian national security and intelligence committee report released in March has so far failed to move the government to take foreign meddling in our elections, or put curbs on homegrown political campaigns.
Rebel News Earns Thumbs Down From the CRA
The Federal Court has upheld a federal government decision denying journalism tax credits to the Rebel News based on a finding that it doesn’t produce enough original news content.
In 2019, the federal government introduced a 25% refundable labour tax credit for salary or wages paid to newsroom employees of qualified Canadian journalism organizations. In 2023, the federal government announced it would temporarily increase the Canadian journalism labour tax credit rate from 25% to 35 percent.
The CRA noted that the advisory board had assessed that Rebel News does not produce original news content, “on the basis that the content was found to be largely opinion-based and focused on the promotion of one particular perspective” and after Rebel requested a reconsideration of the decision using a three-week window, the CRA determined that only two percent of the items produced by Rebel over three weeks constituted original content. Karunjit Sing at Law 360 explains the findings in detail.
CBC Recertified by Reporters Without Borders
CBC/Radio-Canada reports that the national public broadcaster's news services have been recertified by the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI). In external audits by the Alliance for Audited Media, both CBC News and Radio-Canada Info fulfilled the JTI certification requirements.
JTI scrutinizes a news service's transparency and editorial practices and makes its compliance visible to users. It was launched by RSF and its partners in 2018 to combat disinformation and promote trustworthy journalism. CBC/Radio-Canada's news services were the first Canadian broadcast media to earn JTI certification.
To get recertified, CBC/Radio-Canada assessed its news services' practices and policies, including its Journalistic Standards and Practices, against the JTI standard; each service then published a Transparency Report, which was independently audited. In its assessments, the Alliance for Audited Media looked at key areas such as accountability for journalism principles, accuracy and responsibility for sources.
In making the announcement, CBC CEO Catherine Tait said: "As it becomes more difficult to tell fact from fiction, standards like Reporters Without Borders' Journalism Trust Initiative are paramount to recognizing trusted, accurate news.”
Al Jazeera Ramallah Bureau Ordered Closed
This past weekend, as Al Jazeera reports, "Israeli soldiers raided Al Jazeera’s bureau in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank and ordered the Doha-based news network to shut down operations amid a widening Israeli crackdown on media freedom."
"Armed and masked Israeli soldiers forced entry to the building housing Al Jazeera’s bureau and handed a 45-day closure order to the network’s West Bank bureau chief, Walid al-Omari, early on Sunday," the report continues.
Al-Omari said the Israeli military’s closure order accused the network of “incitement to and support of terrorism.”
Sunday’s raid comes just months after the Israeli government banned Al Jazeera from operating inside Israel in May. The initial closure order was also for 45 days, but it was renewed and Al Jazeera journalists are still unable to report from inside the country.
The Growing Shifts In News Absorption
Research conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism explains why young reporters are shunning news organizations and going solo using newsletters, podcasts and social media platforms with TikTok and Twitter having the widest reach.
In its report, it also found bias favouring male news influencers. Misogyny, societal bias, algorithmic bias and the harassment that women in particular suffer on the Internet are suggested as bias contributors.
