The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has announced the launch of a public consultation on the definition of Canadian content for audio services as a part of its recent steps to implement the modernized Broadcasting Act, 1991.
The Broadcasting Act requires the CRTC to modernize Canada’s broadcasting framework and to ensure that online streaming services meaningfully contribute to Canadian and Indigenous content, said the CRTC in its news release.
After this online consultation, the CRTC will conduct a public hearing beginning June 18 and will ultimately update the definition of Canadian content for audio services, with the new definition aiming to help ensure the making, sharing, and discovery of music and other content on all platforms, the CRTC said.
“We know how important it is for Canadian content to be heard and shared,” said Vicky Eatrides, CRTC’s chairperson and chief executive officer, in the news release.
The following may be interested in participating in this consultation:
- Canadian and Indigenous creators
- artists, organizations, and cultural communities
- Indigenous peoples, Black, and other racialized communities, equity-deserving groups, and diverse ethnocultural backgrounds
- official language minority communities
- audio broadcasting services operating in Canada
- Canadian audio production industry members
- members of the public and anyone else interested in Canadian and Indigenous music and audio content
How to participate
Those interested can participate by filling out an online form, writing to the CRTC’s secretary general, or sending a fax.
The CRTC noted that First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples and Indigenous organizations needing assistance to submit their comments and oral interventions could reach out to its Indigenous relations team.
“We look forward to hearing a diversity of perspectives on the definition for audio services,” Eatrides said in the CRTC’s news release.
The CRTC will be accepting comments until Apr. 7. It welcomes comments on the definitions of Canadian musical selection, emerging artists, and French-language vocal music; the creation, distribution, and discoverability of Canadian and Indigenous audio content across radio and online streaming platforms; and additional issues and topics like the impacts of AI.
Comments can also address the matter of a renewed contributions framework to support Canadian and Indigenous music and other priority content and the ways that traditional broadcasters and audio online streaming services can contribute to a sustainable broadcasting system ensuring that Canadians can access their desired audio content and music.
All comments will form part of the public record and will inform its decision, the CRTC said in its news release.
The CRTC, which has a mandate from Parliament to modernize Canada’s broadcasting framework, has so far launched 14 public consultations and issued four decisions to implement the modernized Broadcasting Act, the news release said. The CRTC shared that it plans to do more.
The CRTC, an independent quasi-judicial tribunal, seeks to regulate the Canadian communications sector in the public interest. The CRTC holds public consultations on telecommunications and broadcasting matters and makes decisions based on the public record.