Hollywood studios have criticized Canada’s television regulator for requiring American streamers to direct 15 percent of their Canadian revenues to local independent productions as part of the country’s online streaming law.
“The Motion Picture Association strongly condemns the CRTC’s decision to impose unprecedented, unnecessary and discriminatory investment obligations on US broadcast services operating in Canada,” Charles Rifkin, chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association, said in a statement obtained by the site. Hollywood Reporter.
This came after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, which regulates the country’s television and telecommunications sectors, decided that online streaming companies, which include Netflix and other US streaming companies, would contribute 15% of business revenues in the Canadian market to ensure local media content. This includes the production of original content and French-language content and news.
The CRTC’s ruling comes on the heels of the Canadian Broadcasting Act, legislation that forces U.S. digital giants to fund the production of Canadian media content, which became law in 2023.
“Under the new rules, broadcasters with annual Canadian broadcast revenues of more than $25 million will make meaningful contributions to the broadcasting system. Any broadcasters below that threshold will not be required to spend on Canadian content, which will reduce the overall regulatory burden in the system,” effectively shifting more spending on domestic media content to larger foreign broadcast players and away from smaller domestic broadcasters, the CRTC said in a statement Thursday.
The MPA argued that “this burdensome framework unfairly targets global broadcasters with requirements that directly violate Canada’s obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA),” a trade arrangement currently being renegotiated between Canada, the United States and Mexico amid the ongoing tariff war. The MPA in March 2026 put its support behind the Republican-led American Broadcasting and Innovation Protection Act, which could result in new tariffs on Canadian exports.
Canada’s streaming law requires the United States and other foreign digital platforms like Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify to support local film, TV and music production, and has been praised by Canadian content creators who are set to benefit from the increased support.
The legislation attempts to balance Canada’s support for regional production hubs in Toronto and Vancouver for Hollywood producers who embrace generous tax breaks and currency savings to film their originals north of the U.S. border, while also pushing for more local content to be created with help from larger foreign players active in the Canadian market.
Implementation of the Streaming Act, which initially called for American streamers to contribute five percent of their domestic revenue to domestic productions, has been delayed by a federal appeals court challenge.
“U.S. studios and streaming services are already the largest foreign investors in Canada’s film and television ecosystem – delivering content to Canadian audiences and sharing Canadian stories with the world. This decision triples the cost of doing business in Canada and will spark further inflation in the market, making further investment and innovation less attractive. Over the years, the MPA has consistently made clear that Canada’s OTT law is an unfair business practice. We urge the Canadian government to reconsider this approach,” the MPA said.
In June 2025, Canada dropped its digital services tax on US tech giants to allow trade talks with the United States to resume amid the ongoing tariff war. This came after US President Donald Trump called for a halt to negotiations with Canada regarding the digital services tax, which he described as a “direct and blatant attack on our country.”
These trade talks will now face the CRTC tripling domestic content spending commitments on U.S. streaming companies like Netflix and Prime Video as it continues to dominate Canadian TV viewing.
