October 9, 2024
All of this mess was predictable from the moment the government got talked into this form of regulation for the internet.
The Liberal government’s stubborn refusal to recognize there are limits to its power and consequences to its actions is about to have a harsh and direct impact on the cost of streaming services in this country.
This month — and this comes as no surprise to anyone who understands how the grownup world works — Spotify announced it was increasing prices in Canada. Yes, this isn’t the only country where the online music company increased prices but the hike is also something Spotify and others had cautioned the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission was inevitable if it implemented the Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) they way it feared it would.
The CRTC did exactly what was expected of it and late this spring implemented a five per cent levy (go ahead, call it a tax) on all streaming companies operating in Canada with annual revenues in excess of $25 million. And that means Canada’s most popular music streaming services — YouTube Music and Spotify — had to, as of Sept. 1, hand over that loot to support, as the CRTC put it, “areas of immediate need in the Canadian broadcasting system, such as local news on radio and television, French-language content, Indigenous content, and content created by and for equity-deserving communities, official language minority communities, and Canadians of diverse backgrounds.”
Read More: https://macdonaldlaurier.ca/you-pay-the-price-for-liberal-streaming-tax-peter-menzies-in-the-line/