Internet providers not subject to Broadcasting Act
Written by on February 9th, 2012 in Latest News.
Retail internet service providers, such as Rogers and Bell, that provide end?users with access to broadcasting over the internet are not subject to the Broadcasting Act because they have no control over the programming transmitted, the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled.
Under the act, those that provide “broadcasting undertakings” are assumed to have some measure of control over programming.
But, internet service providers (ISPs), which merely provide the mode of transmission to “broadcasting” requested by end?users, “take no part in the selection, origination, or packaging of content,” the top court said in a choice Thursday.
In making the ruling, the top court upheld a Federal Court of Appeal choice in 2010.
In a 1999 report, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) concluded that the term “broadcasting” included programs transmitted to end-users over the internet, but that it was not necessary to regulate broadcasting services provided through the internet.
It exempted these “new media broadcasting undertakings” from the requirements of the Broadcasting Act. But, in 2008, after public hearings, the CRTC revisited the exemption.
One of the issues raised was whether internet service providers – ISPs – were subject to the Broadcasting Act when they provided end-users with access to broadcasting through the internet.
