CRTC Updates Bill C-11 Timeline: Target Pushed to Late 2025

The CRTC has pushed back the target implementation date back by a whole year after months of delay. It’s now eyeing late 2025.

Last month, we noted that the Online Streaming Act (formerly Bill C-11) was clearly delayed. Earlier this month, it just seemed like the delays were continuing this month. Not only are things getting delayed for the next round of consultations, but it was also starting to look incredibly dodgy as to whether or not the CRTC could maintain their planned implementation deadline of late this year on top of it all.

Today, we learned that the CRTC has effectively waved the white flag on trying to maintain their original deadlines. Their new regulatory plans lays out a very different looking timeline compared to what it was before.

Now, this is the Spring section which is ongoing:

Spring 2024

Consultation on Indigenous broadcasting policy
The CRTC is co-developing with Indigenous peoples a modernized Indigenous broadcasting policy. This consultation is gathering views on how to support Indigenous broadcasters and content creators, and ensure Indigenous stories and voices are represented, easily found and shared across all platforms (both traditional and online). Indigenous content definitions will also be co-determined through this process.

Status: Open from March 22 to July 22, 2024. This is the first consultation in a multi-step co-development process.
Consultation on described video and audio description
This consultation will study how Canadians who rely on described video and audio description can have access to barrier-free programming on traditional and online platforms.

Other activity:

Announced the creation of Indigenous Relations Team. This new team will support Indigenous participation in CRTC proceedings and will ensure the distinct nature and lived experiences of Indigenous peoples are considered across the CRTC’s work.

So, there is a consultation currently under way. The rest of the timeline looks even more radically different:

Summer 2024 (upcoming)

Consultation on closed captioning
This consultation will study how Canadians who rely on closed captioning can have access to barrier-free programming on traditional and online platforms. Comments in American Sign Language (ASL) and Langue des signes québécoise (LSQ) will be accepted.

Other activities:

Issue a decision on initial contributions from online streaming services to the Canadian broadcasting system. There may be additional consultations resulting from that decision, as needed.
Publish the list of registered online streaming services.
Strengthen the CRTC’s commitment to official languages, consistent with the modernized Act and the Official Languages Act.
Release a report on what we heard during the preliminary engagement sessions on the definitions of Canadian content.

Fall 2024 (upcoming)

Consultation on public interest participation
This consultation will explore new ways to fund the participation of groups that represent the public interest in CRTC proceedings.

Winter 2024–2025 (upcoming)

Consultation on structural relationships
This consultation will examine the relationships between small, medium, and large players in traditional broadcasting and online streaming. The CRTC will look at the tools currently in place and what tools it might use in the future.

A public hearing will follow.

Spring 2025 (upcoming)

Consultation on definitions of Canadian audiovisual content
This consultation will examine the CRTC’s definition of Canadian content for television and online programming.

A public hearing will follow.

Consultation on audio content
This consultation will look at all aspects of radio and audio streaming services in Canada. The CRTC will examine issues including how to support the industry, support Canadian music, how to define audio content, and what regulatory obligations should exist.

A public hearing will follow.

Consultation on news programming
This consultation will study how to ensure everyone has access to strong, high quality and diverse local and national news programming on TV, radio and online in Canada.

A public hearing will follow.

Winter 2025–2026 (upcoming)

Consultations on inclusion and diversity
The CRTC will hold a series of consultations to look at how the broadcasting system can better reflect the experiences of all people in Canada and foster access to diverse voices and perspectives.

Spring 2026 (upcoming)

Consultation on the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure
This consultation will review the current Rules of practices and procedures, which govern CRTC proceedings, so that they are more agile, easier to understand and more efficient.

The year of 2026 wasn’t even in the cards for the CRTC, yet the regulator now has items stretching clear into that year.

Now, the new dates aren’t the only surprise to be had here. While consultations are scheduled to begin in 2026, the CRTC also maintains that their implementation phase is to begin in 2025:

Phase 3—Implementing new regulatory framework (targeting launch late 2025)

This phase will focus on implementing the policy decisions listed above.

The CRTC will finalize the contributions online streaming services and traditional broadcasters o support Canadian and Indigenous content. We will also start to issue conditions of service that reflect how each radio station, television service and online streaming service should support the goals of the broadcasting system.

More details on Phase 3 will be included in future updates to this plan.

At the very least, there are some funky things happening with this timeline. The regulator wants to continue holding consultation on elements of the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, yet implement the law as those consultations are ongoing. Obviously, things can get delayed (I mean, a delay has already happened, so it’s not impossible by any means), so it’s not exactly set in stone either. Still, it is a bit confusing to see something like this.

There is a bit of an open question mark in all of this that I haven’t seen yet. As we noted last year, the CRTC cleared it’s schedule for two whole years just to work on the implementation process of both the Online News Act and Online Streaming Act. At the time, the CRTC said this:

In conclusion, the Commission announces today that it will defer the examination of any new application or complaint relating to radio during the implementation of its regulatory plan for modernizing the Canadian broadcasting system, for a period of approximately two years.

So, the question is, is this still accurate? Maybe. Technically speaking, this jives with the 2025 deadline to implement the Online Streaming Act, but the CRTC can’t really have any further delays before things become problematic. If there are further delays with the Online Streaming Act implementation further down the road, would the CRTC clear the schedule even further for an additional year to implement the Online Streaming Act or would they look at other solutions in the interim? I think that’s very hard to say at this point.

Still, so much for that bravado of the CRTC totally handling this without any problem.

Moreover, there’s a political side of things. As others have noted, the delayed proceedings are going on after the next federal election. This means that the negative impacts of the Online Streaming Act won’t be felt until after the next election. This more or less gives the current government some cover for the mistakes they made in pushing this legislation in the first place. Technically speaking, the CRTC isn’t really impacted by elections directly, but the effects of what all is going to happen will be impacted. Specifically, after the election is over, Canadian creators will probably see a sudden drop in viewers from Canada which is long after ballots are cast.

Arguably, if Canadian creators are seeing their careers destroyed before the next federal election, that could theoretically have an impact on voting behaviour. After all, if you typically vote for the Liberal party, and you are a Canadian creator, are you going to be voting for that party again after policies they implemented destroyed your career? Probably not. So, ultimately, the CRTC is trying to buy the Liberal party an additional election period by these delays in the process. Whether that was out of necessity on the CRTC’s part, out of political strategy, or both, well, that is up for debate.

At any rate, there is the silver lining for creators in that they now have more time to enjoy their careers unimpeded by the CRTC demanding that their content get downranked in favour of traditional media content. Initially, it looked like this is the last year creators got to enjoy the free and open internet, but now it looks like an additional year was granted for creators. That’s… something at least.

(Via @MGeist)

Drew Wilson on Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook.