Netflix, Disney Ask Court to Block Rule Forcing Them to Subsidize Canadian Broadcast Content

Netflix, Disney, and other streaming services have mounted a legal challenge to a rule that forces them to donate 5 percent of their Canadian revenues to subsidize different kinds of made-in-Canada content, including local news and content created by and for various diverse “equity-deserving” groups. The Motion Picture Association-Canada (MPA-Canada), which represents the interests of Netflix, Disney, Sony, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. Discovery (HBO) in the Canadian market, said in a July 4 announcement that it had filed two petitions with Canada’s Federal Court of Appeals challenging the regulation, which it accused of being discriminatory. One of the petitions is a request for permission to lodge an appeal against the regulation, which was created by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC is a quasi-judicial tribunal that regulates the Canadian communications sector in the public interest whose decisions are not automatically subject to appeal....