If you haven’t heard by now, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission wants more Canadian porn. At least that’s the message it delivered to three Toronto-based erotica channels when it recently hit them with a reprimand for falling short of Canadian content rules.
As per the requirements, Canadian TV channels must air at least 35% Canadian-made content, which evidently also applies to the sexy stuff too. In their response, AOV Adult Movie Channel, AOV XXX Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx said they fell only a few minutes short and are confident they can easily correct the mistakes.
Pretty much everyone, including an editorial in The Globe and Mail, has pointed out the absurdity of this. The crazy thing is, it may only be the tip of the absurd iceberg considering what else the CRTC is working on. With the ongoing Let’s Talk TV consultation, the regulator is amassing opinions on how television – and also so-called over-the-top video such as Netflix and YouTube – should be regulated.
University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist and I both found the current phase of this consultation, an online survey, to be at least a little worrying because of how the regulator is framing the questions. While CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has said the survey is intended to be provocative, it seems to be guiding respondents toward taking a status-quo position. Among the possibilities raised is the regulation of over-the-top video providers, which, if it came to pass, would mean Canadian content requirements being applied to online broadcasters.
That’s absurd in and of itself, but when combined with the porn issue… well, that’s a whole new level of dumb. How the CRTC might apply and enforce CanCon rules on the whole World Wide Web of porn would be fun to watch. If we thought Rob Ford had made the country a laughing stock, wait till word gets out that Canada is insisting that one-third of its online smut be locally sourced.
Blogs & Comment
Forget Ford and Bieber. Wait till people find out Canada wants its porn locally sourced: Nowak
By Peter Nowak
If you haven’t heard by now, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission wants more Canadian porn. At least that’s the message it delivered to three Toronto-based erotica channels when it recently hit them with a reprimand for falling short of Canadian content rules.
As per the requirements, Canadian TV channels must air at least 35% Canadian-made content, which evidently also applies to the sexy stuff too. In their response, AOV Adult Movie Channel, AOV XXX Action Clips and AOV Maleflixxx said they fell only a few minutes short and are confident they can easily correct the mistakes.
Pretty much everyone, including an editorial in The Globe and Mail, has pointed out the absurdity of this. The crazy thing is, it may only be the tip of the absurd iceberg considering what else the CRTC is working on. With the ongoing Let’s Talk TV consultation, the regulator is amassing opinions on how television – and also so-called over-the-top video such as Netflix and YouTube – should be regulated.
University of Ottawa professor Michael Geist and I both found the current phase of this consultation, an online survey, to be at least a little worrying because of how the regulator is framing the questions. While CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais has said the survey is intended to be provocative, it seems to be guiding respondents toward taking a status-quo position. Among the possibilities raised is the regulation of over-the-top video providers, which, if it came to pass, would mean Canadian content requirements being applied to online broadcasters.
That’s absurd in and of itself, but when combined with the porn issue… well, that’s a whole new level of dumb. How the CRTC might apply and enforce CanCon rules on the whole World Wide Web of porn would be fun to watch. If we thought Rob Ford had made the country a laughing stock, wait till word gets out that Canada is insisting that one-third of its online smut be locally sourced.