Nathalie Théberge to the Canada Media Producers Association

Press Release

From: Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

January 29, 2026

Nathalie Théberge, Vice-Chairperson for Broadcasting
Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)

Check against delivery

Thank you for the invitation to speak today and for that warm welcome. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge that we are on the traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg people. I thank them for their wisdom and their resilience.

For those of you who I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Nathalie Théberge, and I am the Vice-Chair for Broadcasting at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

I am joined today by several of my colleagues, including Bram Abramson, CRTC Commissioner for Ontario, Stéphanie Paquette, Commissioner for Quebec, and Scott Shortliffe, our Vice-President of Broadcasting.

It is a pleasure to see so many familiar faces. I’ll admit that I have been enjoying chatting with some of you outside of the more formal confines of a public hearing room.

This is not my first time here, of course. Over the past 26 years of a career spent working in the Canadian cultural space, I have been at Prime Time many times. This is, however, my first time addressing you all in my role at the CRTC.

It’s an honour, and it’s good timing. The CRTC has been busy modernizing its regulatory frameworks to match new realities and new challenges. And they affect both the broadcasting industry and Canadian culture in general.

Today I want to get into some of our work with you. I want to explain some of the key changes we are making to our frameworks, how and why we are making those changes, and how we envision Canada’s broadcasting system working in the future.

Let’s get started.

An ambitious plan to match an ambitious policy

Overhauling regulatory frameworks that are more than thirty years old, in an industry that is undergoing a massive, disruptive shift, is no small feat.

From the outset, we can all recognize the ambition of the Online Streaming Act and the size of the task given to the CRTC.

In a nutshell, we’ve been asked to find equitable ways to integrate foreign online streamers into our system, while ensuring continued support for Canadian talent, producers, distributors and creators. We’ve also been asked to put in place the right conditions so that Canadian content can better reach audiences here and abroad, and rules supporting those outcomes that are sustainable and adaptable for today and tomorrow.

When the Online Streaming Act was introduced, the shifting realities of the market were undermining our ability to deliver on the public policy objectives of the Broadcasting Act. In fact, the system that had supported generations of Canadians in the broadcasting industry, and the Canadian cultural content they produced, had become at risk.

We had a regulatory framework built in the era of tube television where our broadcasters benefitted from captive audiences. Before the Internet, it was the only place to watch shows.

How do you adapt such a legacy framework to the world we live in now? A world with a multitude of platforms, new and diverse business models and content development streams, and new competition from broadcasters foreign and domestic – some of whom don’t even consider themselves broadcasters.

The direction we received from the government was explicit: in the course of our work we had to ensure we included the perspectives, and reflected the needs of, Indigenous persons, official language minority communities, and Black and other racialized communities. There needed to be a place for local news, and the vitality of both English and French-language content had to be preserved.

That was in addition to the creators, broadcasters and online streaming services whose work would be directly affected.

We had lots of things to consider, but very little time, as these updates were long overdue, and they were needed quickly.

So we moved as fast as we could, within our own limits and in accordance with the direction we received from government. A reminder that the CRTC is a quasi-judicial tribunal that makes decisions based on the public record. And public records have to be built – through engagement, through consultation, through public hearings, and dialogue. We are bound by the processes we have to follow as a tribunal, and we have to be thorough and judicially sound.

In the course of our various proceedings we have heard from hundreds of groups and individuals, from all walks of life with varying perspectives. They have helped us better understand what aspects of Canada’s broadcasting system are important to them and what outcomes they would like to see. Those perspectives have shaped each of the decisions we have made so far, and the ones just around the corner.

In one of our first key decisions the CRTC brought online streaming services into the Canadian broadcasting system. The decision was based on the evidence provided from hundreds of written submissions and a three-week public hearing.

It determined that online streaming services should make base financial contributions to the broadcasting system and that those contributions should be directed to areas most at risk today. This includes local news on radio and television, French-language content, and Indigenous content. We estimate that $200 million annually will flow into the broadcasting system as a direct result of that first decision.

Of course, that was just the beginning. This past summer we issued decisions that included the creation of a new, temporary fund to support local news production by radio stations in smaller markets, where there are fewer options for listeners.

Last October, we issued another key decision, this time to modernize our radio processes. We announced, among other things, that licences will be made indefinite, giving radio stations more time to focus on serving their communities and the listeners.

Last December, we issued a decision requiring online streaming services and on-demand services to make their content more accessible. They must now provide closed captioning and described video and audio on new, scripted original programming, and any partially scripted event of national interest.

And in November, we issued the first part of our decision on the definition of Canadian audiovisual content.

Let me spend a few minutes on this one.

This modernized definition recognizes more creative positions, to reflect how productions have changed over time. The points system has been expanded to provide more paths for certification, including bonus points that promote other forms of Canadian culture such as screenplays based on literary works. And there are new incentives built into the definition for foreign companies to enter into partnerships with Canadian creatives and invest in Canadian content.

Our focus was to update the definition to better reflect the way audiovisual content is produced today. And we made sure, by the same token, to safeguard Canadian creative and production positions – the ones that are instrumental in creating the story a show is telling.

This includes specifying in our rules that creative control should be held by Canadian humans, not machines. We are one of the first countries to set such a clear, unequivocal standard. AI is a tool; humans are artists.

We made these changes to ensure that Canadian creators could continue to thrive in this industry, and that Canadian audiences could continue to see themselves and their values on-screen.

We know Canadian audiences may be consuming content differently than in the past, but one thing that hasn’t changed is their desire to have access to great Canadian stories. According to public opinion research, 74% of Canadians say they consistently tune into Canadian programming when given the choice.

And it’s not just Canadians watching these shows. When quality Canadian content gets made, they have an audience around the world. Just think of shows like Empathie, North of North, and Shoresy.

Furthermore, Canadian shows are successful vehicles for sharing not only our culture, but also our values with the world – values like acceptance, diversity, and compassion for one another. They tell the world, each in their own way, who we are as Canadians. And they do it through engaging, exciting stories that resonate with audiences at home and abroad.

This growth in popularity beyond our borders makes new partnerships and collaborations possible. It has the potential to create new audiences and new revenue streams for shows that previously would have only had a domestic audience.

That is our goal through the modernisation of our regulatory frameworks: to make it easier for more Canadian producers, creators, and broadcasters to seize those new opportunities.

Providing regulatory certainty in an uncertain environment

Now that I have covered some of our work that’s been keeping the CRTC busy for the past two years, I would like to turn to an equally important aspect of our regulatory work: providing clarity and certainty to the industry.

As the regulator, our job is to identify the best path forward to implement the will of Parliament through clear and predictable rules.

But clarity begins, first and foremost, with information and transparency. That is why we come here, and to conferences like Prime Time, and maintain an open-door policy to keep everyone updated on our work and what we plan to do next. To many of you, the CRTC works in mysterious ways. But you can always consult the regulatory plan on our website, which we continue to update regularly. And you can also call or email us to chat.

Clarity also comes with the recognition that change can be uncomfortable for some players in the industry. That is precisely why we are working as quickly as we can to finish updating our frameworks, because we know that uncertainty is tough on business. But unsound regulatory work is just as damaging, however, hence the importance of doing things well.

There is still more work to be done, and I cannot tell you exactly what to expect as we continue deliberating.

What I can tell you, however, is that there will be follow-up decisions in the coming months. This includes decisions to address spending on Canadian programs, distribution rules for services, measures to ensure discoverability of Canadian content, dispute resolution and audio policy.

Later in the year, we will look at different ways individual broadcasters, both traditional and online, will be expected to make their contributions through tailored conditions of service.

Our goal is to bring maximum clarity and certainty through effective, targeted, common-sense rules.

At the same time, we are working hard to remove outdated or unnecessary regulation. I already mentioned our changes to radio licences. We are also streamlining broadcasters’ data-collection requirements by eliminating certain filings, keeping only those that are necessary and purposeful.

This push to cut red tape will remain a goal of ours moving forward. Removing regulatory burden is a key consideration we apply across all of our work.

We also are mindful of the importance to build-in, whenever possible, regular reviews of some elements of the new framework to ensure they remain relevant. It would be presumptuous to say that we know with precision what the future holds, so we must stay agile and adaptable.

Working together toward a common goal: a healthy, vibrant and sustainable broadcasting system

I would now like to turn to the third theme of my remarks today: the importance of working together. Our ability to talk to one another, to share, and to collaborate, has long been a major contributor to the sustained success of Canada’s broadcasting industry.

That includes us as the regulator, and it is why we are talking often with our international partners. We are not the only regulator facing an evolving broadcasting system and having to find a better path to sustainability and growth. Colleagues in the UK, France, Australia, and elsewhere face a similar task.

We are in constant dialogue with them, sharing what works, what doesn’t, and what we think might work in the future. Through those discussions, we are working together to find solutions that are tailored to our respective markets, but that present unified support for cultural diversity across the world.

I want to take a moment to talk about one particular Canadian show, because I think it exemplifies how working together benefits us all, even in ways we might not expect.

A unique facet of Canada’s broadcasting system is its two distinct language markets, English and French, each with different characteristics, needs, and challenges. French content, for example, enjoys terrific audiences domestically, but has high production costs relative to the size of the population. English content, on the other hand, has a much larger potential audience, but also faces direct competition from content from abroad. These two distinct broadcasting markets may, at times, require distinct regulatory solutions to ensure the continued success of each.

But as we consider the uniqueness of these two language markets, I also marvel at how they can not only complement one another, but also support each other. And here, I would like to talk briefly about the show everyone has been talking about, Heated Rivalry.

The show, based on the Nova Scotian Rachel Reid’s best-selling novel, is almost entirely in English. But what strikes me are the music choices made by the show’s producers that have created a boon for several French-language musicians featured in the show. Artists featured on the show’s soundtrack, like Dumas and Peter Peter, the latter of whom helped create the score and musical selection for the series, have seen surges of popularity – both domestically and abroad.

This doesn’t happen without key creative positions being filled by Canadians and thinking outside the box. And as a result, Canadian creatives, in both English and French-speaking Canada, reap the benefits.

Not to mention that the folks from the Lanaudière region north of Montreal should get ready for plenty of tourists looking for a certain cottage next summer.

That is just one example of how working in Canada, supporting Canadian productions with Canadian creators, creates benefits far beyond the show itself. But for that to happen, it will require creators thinking differently, working in new ways and with new partners, within and outside our linguistic markets, to ensure success.

Conclusion

To wrap things up today, I want to challenge everyone here.

At the CRTC, our work is progressing quickly. We have updated the Canadian audiovisual content definition. We are in the process of fully integrating online streaming services into the Canadian broadcasting system and creating more equitable rules of the game. With these decisions, we believe we are creating the right conditions for Canadian talent and content to be supported by a healthy and vibrant broadcasting system.

So I ask each of you: how will you adapt? What new partnerships will you forge, and what new things will you try? And how will you seize the opportunities that come your way, today and in the future?

At the CRTC, we know Canadian creators create great content. They have done so in the past, they are doing it now, and, with the right rules of the game, they will keep telling our stories long into the future.

Let’s work together – creators, broadcasters, producers and yes, regulators – to get there.

Thank you.

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