The recently passed Bill C-11, also known as the Online Streaming Act, was introduced to modernize Canada’s broadcasting regulations for the streaming era. Though the exact implementation of the act’s principles is still to be determined, it aims to bring digital streaming platforms on even playing ground with Canadian media companies, bringing them under the regulatory purview of the CRTC and holding them to similar financial obligations for supporting Canadian content.
Kevin Kivi, general manager of Horizon Media Canada, views the bill as positive for multiple reasons, the first of which relates to the conversations on how to best support “local content.”
“The larger tech platforms attract so many eyeballs, this is an opportunity for them to be mandated to contribute financially to supporting the already fantastic content being produced by Canadian content contributors, to ensure Canada is front and center, which can only be a good thing for the country’s content industries.”
Although created for the right reasons, Véronik L’Heureux, EVP managing director of Spark Foundry, expects the Bill will have an impact on consumer engagement and diversity of content they receive. The law stems from intentions to protect, promote and encourage the production of local content – and she says it was about time to modernize the regulations.
That said, L’Heureux believes the modalities of this legislative framework are based on a traditional system that doesn’t reflect today’s reality. The targeted platforms were created to enrich the user experience through on-demand content, while she says the Bill is an evolution of an old-fashioned content regulated model designed for traditional broadcasters.
“Many details are still to come on how it will be applied, but from an advertising point of view, we can expect a significant change in the rate of user engagement with content,” L’Heureux says. “Since the algorithm will be modified in favor of the content instead of the user, the relevance of the content to the user will certainly be affected. Beyond the relevance of the content affecting the advertising performance, a negative impact could be felt in the diversity of content users are exposed to.”
L’Heureux adds that if the framework is too rigid, users will seek greater value elsewhere in non-restricted environments for example, which can result in challenges when it comes to getting quality reach for advertisers.
“Again, the intentions are good, but the means may not be appropriate to the way consumers evolved in the last few years, and there are collateral consequences that we are yet to understand.”
