TORONTO – It will be up to Canada’s Supreme Court to decide on whether Internet service providers (ISPs) are just pipes or actually broadcasters.
On Thursday the Court granted a coalition of Canadian union and guilds leave to appeal a lower court decision issued last July that deemed ISPs “content-neutral,” and therefore not subject to CRTC-regulated Canadian content exhibition or contribution requirements like broadcasters.
During that proceeding, the major ISPs, (many of which are also cable companies), insisted that because ISPs do not select, originate or package programming, they cannot be considered broadcasters. A coalition of content producers and cultural groups argued that as ISPs do, in fact, transmit video content, they should be thought of like BDUs or some other new class of media broadcasting undertakings and therefore be subject to an ISP levy to support the creation of Canadian content on-line.
Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Audiovisual Coalition – made up of the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television & Radio Artists (ACTRA), the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC) and the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) – issued a statement reiterating their position that ISPs’ provision of access to audiovisual content is subject to the Broadcasting Act.
“The coalition looks forward to presenting their arguments before the Court on this critical issue for the future of the broadcasting system in Canada”, the statement continued.
– Lesley Hunter
