By Ahmad Hathout
Sports streamer DAZN is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to clarify that its December stay of a decision by the CRTC to impose a five-per-cent base contribution on online streamers applies to it.
While the United Kingdom-based platform declined to answer a Cartt question about why it waited so long for clarity because it cannot comment on ongoing legal matters, its September 2 filing comes two days after the end of the first broadcast year in which the policy had taken effect.
The CRTC ordered in June 2024 – and finalized in August 2024 – that standalone Canadian and foreign online streamers making $25 million or more in Canadian revenue from the previous broadcasting year (September 1 to August 31) must put aside five per cent of that toward Canadian content funds, including a list of qualified Certified Independent Production Funds (CIPF) which the commission had just finalized last month.
Apple, Amazon, Spotify, and the Canadian affiliate of the Motion Picture Association (MPAC) – which represents Netflix, Paramount, Pluto, and Crunchyroll – appealed and were granted by the appeal court in December 2024 a temporary suspension of the decision and a hearing on their arguments opposing the order, which was held in June.
The court has not made a final decision on the arguments.
“DAZN acknowledges that it did not move for the Stay and has not participated in the Challenges thus far,” the streamer says in its filing. “However, this is secondary in light of the relief it seeks – which, in essence, is a request for the Court to clarify its existing decision rather than to make any new determination.”
The gist of DAZN’s argument boils down to the following: the court granted the stay to all online entities by virtue of the fact it was referencing the CRTC order that states the policy applies to “the operator of an online undertaking providing audio-visual services.”
“If the Court had not considered it necessary to impose the Stay in respect of that appended Order, it would not have done so; and the Court would have restricted the operation of the Stay to the individual orders issued by the CRTC to Amazon, Apple, Spotify and M-PAC,” DAZN says.
In the event the court elects not to clarify that the stay applies to it, DAZN is asking for leave to bring a motion for an order to make that so.
