The Canadian regulatory physique that oversees radio, tv, and on-line streaming companies put out a news release final week a few provocative new rule. Any on-line streaming service that operates in Canada, affords broadcasting content material, and earns greater than $10 million in annual income might want to full a registration type by November. This contains on-line companies that provide podcasts, the discharge said.
The transfer has drawn some criticism on social media in addition to in op-eds in a lot of Canadian information shops, which counsel that the rule is the start of an effort by the federal government to manage speech on podcasts. A spokesperson for the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Fee (CRTC) informed Scorching Pod that that merely isn’t the case — and a have a look at the precise textual content of the announcement backs that up.
“What is on the market on-line won’t change. The CRTC won’t censor content material Canadians hearken to and watch on-line. It is possible for you to to proceed to hearken to and watch the content material of your selection,” CRTC spokesperson Mirabella Salem wrote in an e-mail.