National

Online streaming services must now pay into fund for Canadian news, content

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 04 Jun, 2024 09:58 AM

Online streaming services like Netflix and Spotify are being told they must start contributing money toward local news and the production of Canadian content.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission has directed foreign streamers today to pay five per cent of their annual Canadian profits into a fund.

That fund will be devoted to producing local TV and radio news, Indigenous content, French-language content, and content created by those with a diverse background.

The CRTC says the fund is expected to inject about $200 million into Canada's broadcasting system every year.

Those responsible to pay would be companies that are not affiliated with a Canadian broadcaster that make at least $25 million from Canadian broadcasting.

The new directive is meant to level the playing field between tech giants and traditional broadcasters, which already contribute to producing Canadian content.

Prev Next

MORE National ARTICLES

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber

A man who held up a bank in Kelowna and fled with more than 40-thousand-dollars in cash has been sentenced to four years in prison. Alan Stuart Metcalfe was sentenced in August after pleading guilty to one count of robbery, and the decision was released online this week.

4 year prison sentence for Kelowna robber

Series of fires outside Mission

The Mounties say police and firefighters responded Wednesday evening to a report of a structure fire on a vacant property along Gunn Avenue and found several buildings on fire, with indications that the blazes had been set intentionally. They say police responded to flames on a different property along the same road yesterday and again found they appeared to have been sparked intentionally.

Series of fires outside Mission

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in British Columbia, with the BC Centre for Disease Control reporting hospitalizations have increased 58 per cent in the past two weeks. The centre says in its latest update that deaths due to COVID-19 are also trending upwards, with 24 fatalities in the last week of September, compared to nine in the second week of August.

B.C. COVID-19 hospitalizations up 58% in two weeks, as infections, deaths also spike

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count

The count by the Homelessness Services Association of B-C was done on March 7th and 8th -- and identified just under five thousand people in 11 communities, up from the roughly 36-hundred identified in the March 2020 count.

Spike in Vancouver's homeless count

Surrey business community grapples with police tax

Business leaders in Surrey are pleading with the province to provide a clear plan as the city grapples with the next stage of implementing a new police force. The Surrey Board of Trade has sent a letter to Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth saying the city needs a solid policing strategy with adequate wraparound support services and infrastructure as it juggles the costs of the outgoing R-C-M-P and incoming Surrey Police Service.

Surrey business community grapples with police tax

B.C. sets out law to ban use of illegal drugs in many public places

British Columbia is setting out new rules as it attempts to navigate a way to curb the overdose crisis with drug decriminalization. Possession of small amounts of many illicit drugs was decriminalized in B.C. in January after the federal government issued an exemption, but legislation introduced by the province today would make their use illegal in many public spaces.