The Rocket Fund and producer Shabnam Rezaei weigh in on CRTC decisions on broadcaster contributions and discoverability.

With reporting by Kelly Townsend, editor of Kidscreen‘s sister publication, Playback. 

Stakeholders who had been lobbying for the kids industry in Canada were dismayed after the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) created new rules around Canadian programming as part of a wide-ranging two-part decision issued on Thursday—without changing anything for kids content.

The CRTC’s decision set a 25% CPE requirement for broadcasters and 15% for streamers if they meet the threshold of US$18 million (CAD$25 million) in Canadian broadcasting revenues or more. The decision includes several flexibility measures and additional requirements for undertakings with revenues that exceed $100 million.

A new 15% CPE requirement for streamers includes an existing 5% base contribution (that’s currently being challenged in the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal), effectively tripling how much eligible streaming services must pay into the Canadian broadcasting system.

The rulings also eliminated programs of national interest (PNI) requirements in the country.

The kids industry had been fighting for the CRTC to reinstate requirements to fund kids content and for new rules mandating the placement of kids content on platforms—but the decision made clear that those mandates won’t be happening.

“Rocket Fund, along with the Canadian children’s production sector, fought hard for a mandated allocation of total Canadian programming spend to kids content with mandatory placement on platforms,” Rocket Fund said in a statement that president and CEO Agnes Augustin shared with Kidscreen. “At a time where it is essential that our children have access to safe and trusted programming, we are deeply troubled that children’s content was not specifically addressed (and barely mentioned) in the CRTC decisions. While the commission acknowledged that children’s content alongside other genres are critical to the Canadian broadcasting system and committed to monitoring these genres following the removal of PNI requirements, a similar, children-specific commitment made during the Let’s Talk TV decision in 2016, when genre protection was removed, failed.”

Big Bad Boo Studios’ co-founder and president Shabnam Rezaei, who testified in last year’s CRTC’s hearings on Canada’s broadcast system, is similarly disappointed in this development. “[I] was really hopeful that if they heard from independent Canadian production companies, they would begin to understand the gravity of the situation,” she tells Kidscreen. “It seems we were not very effective in conveying the situation, and that is rather unfortunate. Their decision leaves kids programming to the free markets, and kids content should not be monetized. It is like the air that we breathe and the roads we walk on. Kids programming is an essential part of the education of Canada’s kids, and to attempt to commercialize their basic brain food is a grave mistake, which will erode our learning, identity and culture. I am hopeful we can continue to have open discussions to change this ruling.”

In response, the CRTC shared a statement to Kidscreen that indicated that children’s programming was not the only genre it had to take into consideration. “It is clear from the record of this proceeding that many interveners considered that several genres of programming remain at risk. These include children’s programming. As such, the commission will closely monitor the impact of this decision, and will ensure through future processes, including on tailored conditions of service, that the system continues to support [a] diverse range of genres – including children’s programming.”

There was a lot riding on the regulator creating CPE carve-outs for kids content, since kids commissioning in the country has been down ever since the CRTC first cut Canada’s kids content quotas in 2015, Rocket Fund’s Augustin argued during the hearings.

The CRTC’s 2015 decision carries echoes of what happened in Australia, which eliminated kids content quotas in 2020 and then saw a decline in kids commissions. Similar to the CRTC’s new rules, Australia has passed a law to make streamers fund local content—but there’s no requirement in either country that funding go specifically to kids content.

The EU, meanwhile, has a 30% content requirement for European works in streamer catalogues, and it has the option for member states to create financial obligations for streamers. Germany has introduced investment requirements for streamers and broadcasters, to the tune of at least 8% of the annual revenue they earn in the country. Denmark also has its own levy system, and a requirement that streamers invest at least 5% of their revenue in local content.

It’s unclear if anyone is happy about the CRTC’s decision. Streamers will now be required to pay three times as much of their Canadian revenue to domestic content as before. The new requirements for streamers to fund local content might seem like a win for Canada’s industry, but the streamers will likely appeal it, as they did with the CRTC’s previous decision on streamer contributions.

Plus, there’s a question of whether such a move is worth angering Canada’s closest trade partner, the US, which has expressed frustration about the decision. “The Motion Picture Association strongly condemns the CRTC’s decision to impose unprecedented, unnecessary, and discriminatory investment obligations on American streaming services operating in Canada,” the org’s chairman and CEO Charles Rivkin said in a statement. “This burdensome framework unfairly targets global streamers with requirements that directly violate Canada’s obligations under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

If the CRTC’s rules spark more flames in the ongoing trade conflict between the US and Canada, there could be a dangerous knock-on effect to Canadian production, especially if it leads US President Donald Trump to impose the 100% tariff on international films that he has previously threatened. Kidscreen‘s sister publication Playback rounded up more reactions in a story today.

Bringing all this back to kids content, though, the Rocket Fund is holding out hope that there can be changes that actually help Canada’s children’s industry.

“Though our regulator chose not to hear us, we believe others will,” the Rocket Fund said in its statement. “Even with the recent loss of our funding as a result of an earlier CRTC decision, Rocket Fund will continue to work tirelessly toward sustainable, long-term solutions so that Canadian children and families continue to have access to trusted Canadian-made content they can rely on. Our public broadcasters cannot bear the responsibility alone. Ensuring that the children of our country have meaningful access to relevant Canadian programming must be shared across the entire broadcasting system and across our country.”

Image courtesy of Unsplash.