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Comment by dibujante | Hacker News Reader

In Canada, it's "the law" (not really, but effectively): the CRTC mandates that a certain percentage of all content on Canadian Netflix be Canadian. Since there is simply not much Canadian content on a global scale, Netflix would have to scrape the barrel getting additional licenses in order to "buy" more space for other content. So they don't, and Canadians pretend to be US Americans when they watch Netflix.

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This is simply not true. The CRTC threatened to add a tax on Netflix and similar services (to "compensate" for them not being subject to the content requirements imposed on traditional broadcasters). They backed off of that, and instead have relaxed the requirements on traditional broadcasters.

http://www.thestar.com/business/2015/03/12/crtc-lowering-can...

Sorry, but you can't blame the shittiness of Canadian Netflix on the CRTC.

> Sorry, but you can't blame the shittiness of Canadian Netflix on the CRTC.

Correct, don't blame the CRTC, blame Bell/Corus/Shaw/Rogers for buying up popular content and then locking it up so it's only available through Crave and Shomi tied to a cable subscription, or not online at all.

I'm still mad at Bell for making no attempt at matching what HBO Now does in the States. People are clearly willing to pay for the service, but they are desperate to keep people locked into TV.

This is a myth, this CRTC rule is mandated for broadcasters. CRTC does not rule content on the internet. Source: http://blog.fagstein.com/2014/11/10/crtc-tv-myths/

Right, completely forgot about this. I think CanCon is a good idea in theory, but Netflix could buy all the Little Mosque on the Prairie, Trailer Park Boys, and Corner Gas spin-offs that Canada could possibly produce, and it wouldn't make much of a dent in the amount of content that Netflix could push.

Edit: Others have pointed out Netflix doesn't fall under CRTC guidelines after "internet tax" was threatened.

I can't seem to edit this post, but I stand corrected. I misunderstood how the CRTC policy worked. I'll have to go read more on the topic.

Yet another example of regulation that sounds good in theory, actually serving to harm the industry. When canadians pretend to be americans their payments gets taxed in america, and not in canada.

Meanwhile, no uneconomic canadian content is being produced, unlike the hopes of the regulators who think their magic wand of law will change economic reality.

It never does, it only serves to hurt people.

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