Some of the perceived imbalances in the domestic media market were underscored at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission’s (CRTC) ongoing market dynamics hearing in Gatineau, Que., as big players maintain that regulation of online undertakings isn’t necessary.

Unifor director of media Randy Kitt told the commissioners on Thursday (July 3) that the “Canadian media landscape is in crisis, largely due to regulatory inaction,” particularly regarding foreign streamers.

He argued that the “power imbalance between the foreign [undertakings] and our domestic players” is “truly staggering” when comparing the value of their market capitalization. Apple’s market cap is currently valued at about US$3.19 trillion and Disney at US$222.9 billion, compared to BCE’s C$28.2 billion.

“The Commission must ensure fair play and good-faith negotiations between sometimes very small Canadian players and these behemoths,” he said.

Kitt recommended requiring foreign-owned undertakings to contribute 25% of Canadian revenues toward Canadian programming expenditures (CPE), on top of the existing 5% base contribution order “to bring them into parity with Canadian broadcasters.” He said that mandatory carriage and discoverability could be used to count toward their CPE.

However, representatives from Amazon Canada argued that Prime Video is not a broadcasting distribution undertaking (BDU), nor does it get the benefits of being one.

“BDUs have closed-network systems, whereas we offer access to subscribers through open internet networks,” Magda Grace (pictured), head of Prime Video, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, told commissioners. “BDUs determine bundles available for subscription,” she said. “In contrast, we simply resell subscription services determined by others.”

“We also don’t get the benefits of BDUs, such as free retransmission of signals,” she said, adding that Prime Video’s add-on subscription business “helps drive revenue to Canadian broadcasters and supports them in diversifying their businesses.”

“It improves competition in the system, because creators have more options for customers to access their content, and Canadians have more ways to access content that they love,” argued Grace.

Kyle Irving, Eagle Vision co-owner and executive producer and board member of On Screen Manitoba, warned commissioners that “market imbalances will further be exacerbated without regulatory mechanisms supporting increased investment in the production and promotion of Canadian content.”

He urged the CRTC “to act boldly in developing must-carry and prominence regulations to ensure the discoverability of Canadian programming is readily accessible and available to audiences in Canada.”

Irving also echoed a call from the Canadian Media Producers Association to apply codes of practice between independent producers and domestic and foreign-owned undertakings, arguing that “broadcasters and streamers use their leverage, control and access to the system, and distribution to license or buy content with deals that are overwhelmingly unfavourable to independent producers.”

He explained that the codes “would help ensure equitable negotiation, including revenue sharing, and control and ownership of IP.” And “to be effective,” Irving underscored, “should require transparent disclosure of revenue data, equitable revenue sharing and enforceable terms that include a timely dispute-resolution mechanism.”

The Documentary Organization of Canada’s (DOC) executive director Julian Carrington argued that the CRTC must “replicate or adapt” its existing regulatory mechanisms “to the online environment and introduce new forms of regulatory support via funding contributions” to “ensure that Canadian documentaries remain discoverable.”

Carrington proposed that the Commission should introduce new mandates for monetary contributions by programming and broadcasting undertakings to support the marketing and promotion of Canadian programs through direct spending and a “discoverability fund to support Canadian documentary producers in targeted marketing, outreach and audience-engagement efforts.”

The proposed fund would “empower documentary producers to pursue the kinds of innovative, community-focused outreach efforts that capitalize on documentary’s unique capacity to reflect real lives,” said Carrington.

Carrington also called on the Commission to recognize connected devices as online undertakings “to ensure the availability, discoverability and prominence of Canadian programming.”

Finally, he proposed mandating “the pre-loading of services by independent broadcasters,” including the National Film Board of Canada’s streaming app and its digital library of more than 6,000 films that “too few Canadians realize [are] freely available to them,” said Carrington.

The hearing concludes on Friday (July 4) with presentations from Blue Ant Media, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and Quebec’s producers association, among others.