OTTAWA, Ontario — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has updated its broadcasting regulatory policies, exempting streaming adult content from “made in Canada” requirements that apply to other online material.
Canada has long maintained a policy of supporting “CanCon,” meaning media that is principally produced and financed by Canadians or Canadian companies, and that employs Canadians as writers, directors, performers, composers and in other creative capacities. On occasion, CanCon rules, such as those mandating that 30% of all broadcast and cable television programming must meet the above criteria, have been used to regulate adult broadcast channels in Canada.
In April 2023, the Canadian government passed the Online Streaming Bill. That legislation extended the CanCon policy to streaming services accessible in Canada, requiring them to promote and prioritize Canadian content as well.
As XBIZ reported at the time, the bill did not specify whether those rules would apply to online adult content. However, its language could be interpreted as limiting the amount of non-Canadian adult content that could be made available for viewing in the country.
The law assigned the particulars of definitions and enforcement to the CRTC, which has now posted an update to its policies, with the stated goal of modernizing media rules to accommodate the Online Streaming Bill and the current technological and media landscape.
The announcement states that, since adult programming does not require regulatory support for its overall economic stability, and since certification or noncertification of adult content “does not impact the Canadian production industry associated with the creation or availability of such content,” the agency will no longer certify adult programming as Canadian.
The announcement notes that stakeholders who participated in its public consultation on the policy updates “generally agreed” with this plan. It adds, however, that Kate Sinclaire of Canada-based production company and paysite Ciné Sinclaire opposed the exemption of adult programming from certification.
“Arbitrarily exempting adult programming from Canadian designation will harm creative workers, harm film training, harm creativity, harm public opinion of sex workers, help monopolies, and open the Commission up to jurisdictional and Charter-based legal challenges,” Sinclaire told the CRTC.