Broadcasting Fees Regulations: SOR/2024-46

Canada Gazette, Part II, Volume 158, Number 8

Registration
SOR/2024-46 March 21, 2024

BROADCASTING ACT

Whereas, under subsection 11(5)^{footnote a} of the Broadcasting Act ^{footnote b}, a copy of the proposed Broadcasting Fees Regulations, substantially in the annexed form, was published in the Canada Gazette, Part I, on September 2, 2023, and a reasonable opportunity was given to persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings and other interested persons to make representations to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission with respect to the proposed Regulations;

Therefore, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, with the approval of the Treasury Board, makes the annexed Broadcasting Fees Regulations under subsection 11(1)^{footnote c} of the Broadcasting Act ^{footnote b}.

Gatineau, March 19, 2024

Marc Morin
Secretary General, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission

Broadcasting Fees Regulations

Interpretation

Definitions

1 The following definitions apply in these Regulations.

Act

means the Broadcasting Act. (Loi)

audiobook service

means the transmission or retransmission of audiobooks over the Internet for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus. (service de livres audio)

broadcasting ownership group

means a group of all operators that are affiliates of one another or, in the case of an operator that is not an affiliate of any other operator, that operator. (groupe de propriété de radiodiffusion)

excluded revenue

means revenue derived from providing audiobook services, podcast services or video game services, as well as revenue derived from broadcasting activities that are carried out by broadcasting undertakings that are, by order, exempted from licensing requirements or exempted from all regulations made under Part II of the Act, unless, in either case, otherwise specified in an exemption order. (recettes exclues)

exemption level

means

• (a) for a broadcasting ownership group that includes more than one broadcasting undertaking, the aggregate of
  • (i) for each broadcasting undertaking whose fee revenue is $2 million or less, the lesser of
    • (A) $2 million, and
    • (B) the fee revenue of the broadcasting undertaking, and
  • (ii) $25 million; and
• (b) for a broadcasting ownership group that includes only one broadcasting undertaking, $25 million. (franchise)

fee revenue

means the gross revenue minus excluded revenue derived during a return year from the broadcasting activity in Canada of all of the broadcasting undertakings that form part of a broadcasting ownership group, including

• (a) revenue received in respect of all transmitters forming part of a broadcasting undertaking if the undertaking consists of more than one transmitter;
• (b) the estimated annual revenue, based on the trends of the market in which a broadcasting undertaking operates, the previous financial performance of the undertaking, and, when applicable, the business plan of the undertaking for its first 12 months of operation, if that undertaking has not filed a fee return covering the most recent return year;
• (c) revenue that is derived from the sale of air time of a broadcasting undertaking by the Corporation and paid by the Corporation to the undertaking; and
• (d) in the case of an online undertaking that has not filed a fee return covering the most recent return year,
  • (i) the gross annual revenue, as reported by the online undertaking and validated by the Commission, or
  • (ii) if the information referred to in subparagraph (i) is not available, the estimated gross annual revenue of the online undertaking, based on the trends of the market in which it operates, its business plan and any previous financial performance that the Commission considers to be related to its broadcasting activity.

This definition does not include any amount received by a broadcasting undertaking from another broadcasting undertaking to which these Regulations apply, other than the amounts received from the Corporation for the sale of air time. (recettes désignées)

fiscal year

means the one-year period beginning April 1. (exercice)

operator

means a person that carries on a broadcasting undertaking to which the Act applies. (exploitant)

podcast service

means the transmission or retransmission of podcasts over the Internet for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus. (service de balado)

return year

means a one-year period beginning September 1. (année de rapport)

video game service

means the transmission or retransmission of video games over the Internet for reception by the public by means of broadcasting receiving apparatus. (service de jeux vidéo)

Application

Exclusions

2 These Regulations apply to all broadcasting undertakings other than

• (a) campus, community, Indigenous or student broadcasting undertakings;
• (b) broadcasting undertakings carried on by the Corporation; and
• (c) broadcasting undertakings carried on by an independent corporation, as defined in section 2 of the Direction to the CRTC (Ineligibility to Hold Broadcasting Licences), that derive none of their revenues from the sale of air time.

Designated Broadcasting Undertaking

Highest fee revenue

3 (1) The operator or affiliate that controls a broadcasting ownership group must designate the broadcasting undertaking that has the highest fee revenue among the undertakings in the group.

Obligations

(2) The designated broadcasting undertaking must ensure that the broadcasting ownership group meets its obligations under sections 4 to 7.

Fee Returns

Returns

4 On or before November 30 in each year, every broadcasting ownership group whose fee revenue for the most recent return year exceeds the exemption level must file with the Commission a fee return on the form provided by the Commission.

Period covered

5 The fee return must be completed with respect to the return year beginning September 1^st of the year preceding the calendar year in which the return is to be filed.

Fees

Broadcasting fees

6 Every broadcasting ownership group must pay broadcasting fees to the Commission annually, no later than 30 days after the date recorded on the invoice issued by the Commission.

Unpaid fees

7 If the broadcasting fees become overdue, the broadcasting ownership group must pay interest and administrative charges in accordance with the Interest and Administrative Charges Regulations.

Calculation of Fees

Calculation by Commission

8 The annual broadcasting fees payable are to be calculated by the Commission.

Amount of Fees

9 (1) The annual broadcasting fees payable are the sum of the initial amount calculated in accordance with subsection 10(1) and the annual adjustment amount calculated in accordance with subsection 10(2).

Change charged or credited

(2) Any change in the amount of the annual broadcasting fees payable that results from the calculation of the annual adjustment amount referred to in subsection 10(2) is to be charged or credited to the broadcasting ownership group in the following year’s invoice and must not, in any case, result in a reimbursement on the part of the Commission.

Initial amount

10 (1) The initial amount of the annual broadcasting fees payable is determined by the formula

(A ÷ B) × C

where

A

is the broadcasting ownership group’s fee revenue for the most recent return year, less that broadcasting ownership group’s exemption level for that return year;

B

is the aggregate fee revenues of all broadcasting ownership groups whose fee revenue for the most recent return year exceeds the applicable exemption level, less the aggregate exemption level for all those broadcasting ownership groups for that return year; and

C

is the estimated total regulatory costs of the Commission for the current fiscal year as calculated in accordance with subsection 11(1).

Adjustment amount

(2) The annual adjustment amount of the annual broadcasting fees payable is determined by the formula

(A ÷ B) × D

where

A

is the broadcasting ownership group’s fee revenues for the most recent return year, less that broadcasting ownership group’s exemption level for that return year;

B

is the aggregate fee revenues of all broadcasting ownership groups whose fee revenue for the most recent return year exceeds the applicable exemption level, less the aggregate exemption level for all those broadcasting ownership groups for that return year; and

D

is the difference between the estimated total regulatory costs of the Commission and the actual total regulatory costs of the Commission for the fiscal year as calculated in accordance with section 11.

Estimated total regulatory costs

11 (1) The estimated total regulatory costs of the Commission for a fiscal year is the sum of the following amounts, as set out in the Commission’s expenditure plan published in Part III of the Estimates of the Government of Canada:

• (a) the costs of the Commission’s broadcasting activity, and
• (b) the share, attributable to the Commission’s broadcasting activity,
  • (i) of the costs of the Commission’s administrative activities, and
  • (ii) of any other costs used to calculate the net cost of the operation of the Commission’s program, excluding the costs of regulating the broadcasting spectrum.

Actual total costs

(2) The actual total regulatory costs of the Commission are to be calculated in accordance with subsection (1) using actual amounts.

Notice

Notice

12 The Commission must publish, each year, the estimated total regulatory costs referred to in subsection 11(1) in a notice in the Canada Gazette, Part I.

Transitional Provisions

Definition of former Regulations

13 In sections 14 and 15, former Regulations means the Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997, as they read immediately before the day on which these Regulations come into force.

Fiscal year 2024–2025

14 (1) For the fiscal year 2024–2025, the fee return information provided by broadcasting undertakings under section 5 of the former Regulations is to be consolidated into fee revenue information for their broadcasting ownership group, in accordance with sections 1 and 4.

Fee revenues for online undertakings

(2) For the fiscal year 2024–2025, the fee revenues for an online undertaking are to be calculated by the Commission, based on the fee return filed by the online undertaking and verified by the Commission, in accordance with the condition of service with respect to fee returns set out in Paragraph 4 of Broadcasting Order CRTC 2023–332, entitled Conditions of service for carrying on certain online undertakings, dated September 29, 2023.

Fiscal years 2024–2025 and 2025–2026

15 For the fiscal years 2024–2025 and 2025–2026, the annual adjustment amount that is referred to in subsection 10(2) and the estimated and actual total regulatory costs of the Commission that are referred to in section 11 of these Regulations are to be calculated in accordance with subsection 8(2) and section 9 of the former Regulations.

Repeal

16 The Broadcasting Licence Fee Regulations, 1997 ^{footnote 1} are repealed.

Coming into Force

April 1, 2024

17 These Regulations come into force on April 1, 2024.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

The Broadcasting Fees Regulations give effect to the determination of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission to make regulations, with the approval of the Treasury Board, pursuant to subsection 11(1) of the Broadcasting Act, regarding fees to be paid by persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings. The Regulations require, with some exclusions, that persons carrying on broadcasting undertakings, including online undertakings, pay fees on an annual basis. The fees are calculated and based on the revenues fee payers derive from broadcasting activity in Canada of all the broadcasting undertakings that form part of a broadcasting ownership group, subject to an exemption level.