TORONTO, ON (January 29, 2020) — ACTRA welcomes the long-awaited release of the Broadcasting and Legislative Review Panel’s final report as part of the process of adapting Canada’s broadcasting legislation to the digital economy.

“Our goal is to create updated legislation inclusive of all players in the Canadian broadcast landscape,” said ACTRA National President David Sparrow. “Congratulations to the Panel for its hard work reviewing thousands of submissions from interested parties across the country and bringing forward its recommendations. We fully agree with the Chair that the single most important message to convey on behalf of Canadians is one of urgency.”

In its submission to the Panel, ACTRA made several key recommendations, including:

• Amending the Broadcasting Act so it applies to all programming content provided to Canadians, regardless of the services and technologies used to produce the content or to make it available.
• Requiring all players in the Canadian market – traditional broadcasters, OTT and music streaming services, Internet Service Providers and Wireless Service Providers – to contribute to the creation of Canadian content.
• Providing the CRTC with the tools needed to regulate all Canadian and foreign services providing programming content to Canadians.
• Increasing Canadian content discoverability options by requiring: all services offering on-demand programming content to Canadian consumers to maintain a Canadian content minimum in their program selections; Internet search engines to tweak their algorithms to ensure Canadians are offered some Canadian choices when they search for cultural/artistic content.
  “We are very pleased the Panel has recognized the importance of investing and promoting Canadian content and its discoverability on all platforms,” said Sparrow. “This is a call to action, and we look forward to the government heeding the call and moving quickly.”

Specific details and measures included in the Panel’s report require further review and analysis after which ACTRA may have further comment.

About ACTRA
ACTRA (Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists) is the national union of professional performers working in English-language recorded media in Canada. ACTRA represents the interests of over 25,000 members across the country – the foundation of Canada’s highly acclaimed professional performing community.

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Media Contact: Carol Taverner, Public Relations Officer, ACTRA National, tel: 416-644-1519, email: ctaverner@actra.ca