Canadians are watching more videos and TV shows that aren’t required to have home-grown content via their computers and cellphones, but after a decade of explosive Internet growth the CRTC will review its hands-off approach to the medium.
The federal broadcast regulator will begin hearings tomorrow in Hull, Que., to review its policy of allowing broadcasting content to be unregulated on the Internet and cellphones.
“If Canadians don’t encourage Canadian content on the Internet, who will?” asked Ian Morrison of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.
He said the Internet has changed from being text-dominated since 1999 when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decided to take a hands off approach.
Search engine giant Google likes the status quo.
“There’s more Canadian content just on YouTube than all three major TV networks combined,” said lawyer Jacob Glick, Google’s Canada policy counsel.
