Canadian Broadcasting Regulation In 2025 And Implications For The Year Ahead: Consultation, Course Correction, And Continuing Uncertainty

CRTC regulation in 2025

The past year marked a pivot point for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission ("CRTC" or "Commission") in implementing the Online Streaming Act and modernizing Canada's broadcasting framework. After an intense period of consultation and policy development in 2023 and 2024, the Commission spent much of 2025 further consulting on its approach, while also modernizing the definition of Canadian audio-visual content, recalibrating certain radio regulatory processes, and signalling that accessibility would become a system-wide obligation. At the same time, key elements of the Commission's new contribution regime remain before the courts, leaving material uncertainty for stakeholders as the Commission looks ahead to the next phase of implementation.

Redefining "Canadian program" for a New Era of Business Models

The most consequential broadcasting policy development in 2025 was the CRTC's decision redefining what qualifies as a "Canadian program" in the audio‑visual sector. The Commission's new certification framework is intended to achieve its stated objective of adapting cultural policy to contemporary production and financing realities, including greater reliance on international partnerships and evolving creative roles. By expanding the points system and recognizing a broader range of key creative positions, the Commission sought to preserve Canadian control while allowing for more flexible production structures across both English‑ and French‑language markets. Although adoption of new expanded criteria is anticipated, the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit administered by CAVCO remains at this time based on the existing 10-point system of qualification, resulting in a current misalignment between what qualifies as "Canadian" for CRTC versus CAVCO purposes.

While the Commission addressed issues relating to certification, artificial intelligence, data collection and reporting, it expressly deferred determinations on funding and other support for Canadian programming, including for news and other at-risk content and independent production. Those issues are to be addressed in a subsequent policy decision. As a result, the practical economic impact of the new definition remains unclear, particularly for online services that will be subject to both certification standards and contribution obligations.

The Commission also signaled its intention to require more detailed financial and operational data from online undertakings, and to make at least some of that information public. That approach has already prompted legal challenges and may influence how forthcoming expenditure rules are structured. The tension between transparency, confidentiality, and competitive harm is likely to remain a live issue as implementation continues.

Modernizing Radio Regulation: Reducing Burden while Tightening Oversight

While the Commission's new audio policy is still being considered, it did take modest steps to update certain radio regulatory processes. Acknowledging the financial and structural pressures facing radio broadcasters, the CRTC eliminated fixed‑term licence renewals in favour of open‑ended licences, replacing periodic renewal hearings with ongoing compliance audits.

The radio processes decision also introduced greater operational flexibility for certain types of radio stations. Measures include streamlined licensing for developmental stations, simplified processes for transitioning from low‑power to full‑power operations, and a one‑year trial permitting AM stations to simulcast on FM within the same market, and to broadcast spoken word programming without changing format during that time.

While this emphasis on practical and flexible regulation is a positive signal for the industry, determinations on larger issues like the revised definition of a Canadian musical selection, financial contribution obligations and Canadian content quotas will be made sometime later this year. Prompt resolution of these and other matters, including the role of local news, is sought by Canadian broadcasters in the anticipation that reduced regulatory uncertainty will facilitate investment and administrative decisions, thereby assisting the industry generally.

Market Dynamics: Defining Sustainability in a Converged System

The Commission's hearing on "Market Dynamics" and "Sustainability" in June and July brought together the entire industry to address foundational questions in Canada's broadcasting system. Framed by the Commission as an attempt to achieve sustainability and fairness, the proceeding examined market dynamics among traditional broadcasters, distributors, and online services, as well as the tools available to ensure the discoverability and viability of Canadian and Indigenous content.

The proceeding also highlighted ongoing tension between policy objectives and economic realities, particularly for smaller and mid‑sized players.

Stakeholders are anxiously awaiting a decision in 2026, because it will inform several forthcoming initiatives identified in the Commission's regulatory plan, including tailored conditions of service and potentially differentiated obligations based on size, market power, or business model.

Accessibility: from Principle to Enforceable Obligations

Accessibility emerged as one of the clearest through‑lines of the Commission's work in 2025. In a policy decision released late in the year, the CRTC set out new requirements for described video and audio description applicable to online and on‑demand services, including obligations covering scripted originals, information programming, and search functionality. These requirements will be imposed through binding orders, marking a shift from largely voluntary or legacy‑based accessibility measures to enforceable, platform‑neutral standards.

At the same time, separate consultations focused on barriers to identifying and accessing programming, including issues related to interfaces, navigation tools, and device accessibility. These proceedings build on complaint‑driven decisions and collectively signal that accessibility considerations will increasingly be embedded into both content and technology requirements, with implications well beyond traditional broadcasters.

Ongoing Litigation: the Commission's Contribution Framework in Suspension

The past year was also marked by ongoing litigation over the CRTC's base contribution regime for online streaming services. Appeals and judicial review applications challenging the 5% contribution requirement were heard by the Federal Court of Appeal in June, and a stay of payment remains in effect pending the Court's decision. The challenges raise questions about the scope of the Commission's authority, the treatment of foreign‑owned undertakings, and whether mandated contributions can be directed toward services—such as local news—that certain mandated contributors do not provide.

The outcome of this litigation could have significant consequences for the timing, structure, and even viability of key funding mechanisms underpinning the Commission's broader policy agenda. In the meantime, stakeholders must plan against a backdrop of uncertainty, with compliance obligations defined on paper but deferred in practice.

Online Harms: Still a Work in Progress

Canada's efforts to establish an online‑safety regime continued in 2025, despite repeated legislative disruptions. The federal government's most recent proposal—Bill C‑63, the Online Harms Act, introduced in February 2024—would have imposed duties on social media platforms to make certain harmful content (such as child‑sexual exploitation material and non‑consensual intimate images) inaccessible. Bill C-63 also would have created new oversight bodies, including the Digital Safety Commission of Canada and the Digital Safety Ombudsperson, to enforce transparency and accountability obligations. Bill C‑63 died on the Order Paper in January 2025.

AI Minister Solomon and Identity and Culture Minister Miller have both indicated that Ottawa is preparing to revive an online‑harms bill in 2026, suggesting that the content of potential legislation could include a social media ban for children like those being considered in other jurisdictions, an issue that may feature in upcoming Canada-US-Mexico trade negotiations.

Québec Passes French-language Discoverability Law

On December 12, 2025, the National Assembly of Québec passed Bill 109: An Act to affirm the cultural sovereignty of Québec and to enact the Act respecting the discoverability of French-language cultural content in the digital environment. This Québec legislation aims to promote discoverability of and access to original French-language cultural content in the digital environment. The Act requires digital platforms and manufacturers of television sets or of devices intended to be connected to a television set to ensure that the interface of the digital platforms, television sets, and related devices may be easily configured in French, in accordance with terms and conditions to be set by regulation. Key issues, including the criteria for identifying covered digital undertakings, the criteria for determining what constitutes original French-language cultural content, the mandatory quantity or proportion of original French-language cultural content, and obligations with respect to discoverability of content remain to be established by regulation before this law comes into force. Constitutional challenges are also expected.

Looking Ahead to 2026

The Commission's broadcasting regulatory plan makes clear that 2026 will focus on moving from framework‑setting to implementation. Decisions on Canadian programming expenditures, tailored conditions of service and discoverability are all on the horizon. For broadcasters and online services alike, the challenge will be to navigate a system that is more flexible in form, but increasingly prescriptive in substance, particularly in areas such as accessibility, transparency, and funding of Canadian content.

Copyright Board Regulation of Broadcasting Distribution and Online Streaming Undertakings in 2025

The Copyright Board and Federal Court of Appeal were active in matters affecting broadcasting distribution undertakings and online streaming video services.

Early Signals for Online Audiovisual Services

The Copyright Board weighed in on the regulatory environment governing online audiovisual streaming services in 2025. While the decision is preliminary, it offers important insight into how copyright obligations for online services may be interpreted and applied in the coming years.

As part of a broader, ongoing proceeding, the Copyright Board issued a preliminary decision relating to the SOCAN Tariff that governs the reproduction of musical works embedded in audiovisual programs transmitted by online streaming video services, and the use of music on user-generated content (UGC) platforms. The reproduction tariff applies to services that offer on‑demand streams, limited downloads, or permanent downloads of audiovisual programming. It establishes royalty rates payable for the reproduction of SOCAN's repertoire in connection with the operation of such services, with proposed rates varying depending on the manner in which content is made available to end users.

In its preliminary conclusions, the Board made several notable observations relevant to online business models. It indicated that the creation of temporary copies for offline viewing—or even the mere provision of functionality enabling users to make such copies—engages the reproduction right under the Copyright Act. At the same time, the Board suggested that an end user's act of viewing an audiovisual work from an offline copy does not, in itself, engage any further copyright interest. The Board also addressed the Copyright Act's non‑commercial UGC exception, an area that has received limited judicial interpretation to date. It expressed the preliminary view that where a creator authorizes a commercial UGC service to disseminate new content on the creator's behalf, the service does not infringe copyright by facilitating that dissemination. In this context, the "non‑commercial" requirement applies to the individual creator's use or authorization, rather than to the revenue model of the intermediary platform.

Although these conclusions are expressly preliminary and subject to revision in a final decision, they provide an early indication of how the Board may approach key questions relating to reproduction rights, offline functionality, and the scope of the UGC exception in the online audiovisual environment. These issues are likely to take on greater significance as regulatory and commercial scrutiny of streaming and platform services continues to intensify. SOCAN has applied to the Federal Court of Appeal for judicial review of the Copyright Board's preliminary determinations.

Retransmission Tariffs: Continued Recalibration

Judicial oversight of the Copyright Board's tariff‑setting process also remained active in 2025. The Federal Court of Appeal granted a judicial review application brought by collective societies challenging the Board's redetermination of the tariff applicable to the retransmission of distant television signals for the 2014–2018 period. The Court set aside the Board's redetermination and remitted the matter back to the Board for reconsideration in accordance with its reasons.

In response, the Board approved a revised retransmission tariff reflecting the Court's instructions. That revised tariff was subsequently subject to an erratum correcting an error in the calculation of rates applicable to mid‑sized systems. In parallel, a further judicial review was initiated to address an outstanding issue concerning the absence of a settlement date, a standard feature of retransmission tariffs that remains unresolved.

Taken together, these developments underscore the degree to which copyright tariffs remain in flux. Ongoing litigation continues to shape both the substance and the process of tariff approval, contributing to uncertainty for regulated parties and reinforcing the central role of the courts in refining the Board's approach to complex economic and legal questions.

Looking Ahead to 2026

2026 will continue to be a busy year for Copyright Board and Federal Court of Appeal proceedings. The Online Audiovisual Services and TV Retransmission proceedings will progress before the Board, along with proceedings involving online gaming, satellite radio, and background music services. The Federal Court of Appeal will consider judicial review applications arising from Online Audiovisual Services and TV Retransmission tariff proceedings.

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