Do you pay more when streaming services have to subsidize Canadian content? Not necessarily, advocates say

But one Canadian group says data shows that similar contribution rules in European jurisdictions have not resulted in corresponding price increases for consumers.

“I don’t know what (the government) based this analysis on,” said Marie-Julie Desrochers, the executive director of the Coalition for the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

Last month, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) ruled that major online streamers — many of them American — must contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to support the creation of Canadian film and television. That number followed the five per cent figure the regulator initially announced, a number that prompted legal challenges from companies like Apple and Amazon.

A spokesperson for Culture Minister Marc Miller’s office said Friday that the government based its justification of a consumer cost increase on an estimation that if the 15 per cent rate was fully passed on to Canadians, subscribers would pay between $35 to $90 extra per year depending on the streaming service.

The minister’s office, however, was unable to tell the Star whether any streaming companies had actually said they would boost subscription rates in tandem with the CRTC’s contribution hike. The Prime Minister’s Office deferred the Star’s questions to Miller’s team. 

The Motion Picture Association — Canada group, which advocates for major U.S. studios including Disney, Netflix and Amazon, did not respond to questions about whether those companies had threatened to increase costs in response to the CRTC’s decision. 

The funding requirements stem from a Trudeau-era law that passed in 2023, which tasked the CRTC with subjecting streaming giants to the same content funding regulations that already apply to television and radio broadcasters.

On Wednesday, Miller announced that the federal government had directed the CRTC to review its decision to triple the contribution amount, and in the interim, would send $600 million to support Canada’s audio and audiovisual sectors.

Carney said he wasn’t caving to the U.S., which believes its companies are being unfairly discriminated against, stating instead that “this is not the time to make Canadians pay another $50.”

The federal Conservatives have demanded that the Liberals abolish the regime altogether, also arguing that Canadians will wind up bearing the increased costs.

But Desrochers’ organization, which represents the Canadian cultural sector, conducted its own analysis of the European Union’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive, a predecessor to Canada’s law that allowed member states to set their own rules around imposing financial obligations to contribute to the funding of European productions.

That analysis showed that despite different countries setting different contribution rates, the monthly cost for a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription did not materially change across jurisdictions.

Spain, for example, requires major streamers to contribute five per cent of their revenues, while France’s rate ranges between 20 and 25 per cent. But in both countries, a standard Netflix subscription is €14.99, with Amazon Prime subscription costs remaining within a close range.

Desrochers said the purpose of the analysis is not to explain why streaming subscription costs increase over time: inflation, competition, and other factors can all contribute to consumer costs.

“There are multiple factors. (Companies) would not wait for any decision from the CRTC to increase their prices … We all remember that we paid less (for our accounts) at the beginning,” she said.

“The idea is just to target some of this funding to Canadian content. So if they do good content, and (the streamers) promote it, it should bring them the same revenues, or even more revenues, because we know that Canadians create good content that Canadian citizens enjoy watching,” Desrochers added.