Canada Wants to Slap Fees on Netflix (NFLX)

The Canadian film and TV industry players are calling for Netflix (NFLX) to pay for local production as an online broadcaster, the Hollywood Reporter said on Thursday. According to the report, the Canadian Media Production Association [CMPA] is coming together Friday in Ottawa to discuss how to deal with Netflix and address concerns that the upstart Netflix Canada service undermines their industry’s revenue model.

CMPA president and CEO Norm Bolen said CRTC (Canada’s TV watchdog) needs to order the streaming video provider to help bankroll the local industry. Stephen Waddell, national executive director of ACTRA, Canada’s actors union, said the industry needed to speak with one voice to convince the CRTC to impose conditions on Netflix Canada who operates in the Canadian market without currently underwriting local content production.

The CRTC however, may have a problem with regulating Netflix. The Canadian TV watchdog ruled in fiscal 1999 that it would not have power to regulate media activities on the Internet under the Broadcasting Act.

Netflix lost $2.19, or 0.92%, to $235.53 at 3:27 pm E.T. in Nasdaq composite trading.

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3 Comments on Canada Wants to Slap Fees on Netflix (NFLX)

  1. Yes netflix should support bell(ctv) who is actively screwing over netflix and Canadians alike with usage limits of 75gigs for higher tiers of internet service… What a joke….

    Canada content is garbage and demanding netflix to pay to support crappy ad filled content that bell forces on Canadians via killing online competition.
    How about CRTC look into the monopoly power that is bell(now that it acquired CTV) or rogers(citytv) and their abusive practices on over priced per gigabyte charges(1-2 dollars) that only cost 1 cent to supply. Or the lowering of limits as rogers/bell constantly do as they please.

    http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2010/07/22/rogers-download-limits.html

  2. This sounds patently ridiculous. I mean, in what way is Netflix in competition with local broadcasters? It sure sounds like a sweet deal for the broadcasters for them to get money for nothing, but by what rationale are they arguing for this?

  3. I love how these companies can do what ever they want. If Netflix has to start paying these companies, they will have to jack up the monthly subscription and the content on there wont justify the new price. I mean its a great service because of the price. It will lead to them pulling out of Canada if that’s the case.

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