The Federal Court of Appeal has officially shut down an attempt by big streaming services to hide their financial data.
Netflix, Disney, and Amazon were hoping to block new CRTC rules that would force them to go public with their Canadian revenue and spending, but the court isn’t having it.
The Motion Picture Association-Canada, representing the streaming giants, tried to argue that the new rules are unfair and could hurt their business by exposing “confidential” data. But federal judges tossed the case, agreeing with the government that the appeal was way too early.
Essentially, the court said that since the CRTC hasn’t actually finalized what info needs to be released yet, there’s nothing for a judge to rule on. “Until and unless any decisions… are finalized and released, any assessment… will be speculative,” the attorney general argued, reports The Canadian Press.
The CRTC wants to publish exactly how much these platforms are making in Canada. But more specifically how much of that cash is actually going back into Canadian content.
Streaming companies claim they didn’t get a fair chance to argue for confidentiality, but the regulator isn’t exactly sympathetic. Scott Shortliffe, the CRTC’s VP of broadcasting, pointed out that Canadian companies have had to follow these same rules for years and that the transparency is in the public’s best interest (if that’s the case then why does CBC Gem want to hide its subscriber numbers?).
For now, the streamers will have to wait until the final rules are set in stone before they can try to fight them again in court.
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