OTTAWA – Minister of Canadian Heritage Pablo Rodriguez confirmed last week government legislation seeking to level the playing field between digital platforms and Canadian news outlets will include broadcasters.
The announcement was made at a Canada 2020 event on the future of news.
“News outlets support an informed citizenry and a healthy democracy. Canadians need access to news and information to fully benefit and participate in democratic society,” a spokesperson for Canadian Heritage said in an emailed statement to Cartt.ca.
The minister’s mandate calls on him to “Swiftly introduce legislation to require digital platforms that generate revenues from the publication of news content to share a portion of their revenues with Canadian news outlets to level the playing field between global platforms and Canadian outlets. This legislation should be modelled on the Australian approach and introduced in early 2022.”
“Minister Rodriguez confirmed last week that broadcasters will benefit from the framework, given the important role they play in producing and providing Canadians access to news,” the spokesperson said.
As Canada’s legislation is to be modelled on Australia’s approach, it is worth noting that at one point Australia planned to exclude the country’s two public broadcasters, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Special Broadcasting Service, from benefitting from its approach to leveling the playing field between global platforms and Australia’s news organizations.
It is not clear at this point whether the CBC will be included or specifically excluded from the Canadian government’s online news legislation. In response to a question asking for more information, the Heritage spokesperson said, “Further details on the legislative approach will be available in due course.”
While the details of the framework are still unclear, the explicit inclusion of broadcasters is important, since last year when Google announced it was investing in Canadian newsrooms and journalists through agreements with publishers for Google News Showcase, the company also indicated it had no plans to work with Canadian broadcasters on similar deals. The new legislation could change this.
There is no concrete timeline for when the online news legislation will be introduced. When asked, the Heritage spokesperson pointed to the section of the minister’s mandate letter, which indicates it should be introduced in early 2022.
