In a significant policy shift, Canada's broadcast regulator has decided to exempt pornography from longstanding Canadian content requirements. The Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) revealed in recent protocol updates that adult programming will no longer need to meet strict CanCon certification standards.
What Changed for Adult Content
The CRTC's new guidelines explicitly state that any program "devoted to depicting explicit sexual activity" will be exempt from requirements to ensure minimum quotas of Canadian participants both in front of and behind the camera. This means adult content producers no longer need to comply with the complex points system that previously governed what qualified as Canadian programming.
Under the old system, simply having Canadian performers or filming in Canadian locations wasn't sufficient. The CRTC maintained an elaborate certification process that required the producer and at least one lead performer to prove Canadian citizenship. Additionally, at least 75% of financing needed to come from Canadian sources or companies.
The Burden of Previous Requirements
The previous CanCon rules created significant challenges for adult content producers. In one extreme example cited by industry observers, even a video featuring a Canadian couple having sex in Canada and directed by another Canadian would fail to qualify as Canadian content if only 74% of the financing could be proven as Canadian.
The difficulties became particularly apparent in 2014 when three Canadian pornography channels, including gay-focused service Maleflixxx, nearly lost their broadcast licenses. The channels struggled to meet CRTC requirements that mandated 8.5 hours of Canadian erotica daily for their 24-hour broadcasting schedules.
Industry Reaction and Concerns
According to the CRTC's bulletin, broadcasters were "generally agreed" that adult content should be removed from CanCon quotas. However, the decision did face opposition from some Canadian adult filmmakers.
Winnipeg-based filmmaker Kate Sinclaire, whose Ciné Sinclaire content is produced in Manitoba, emerged as the most vocal critic. Sinclaire warned the commission that exempting adult programming from Canadian designation would "harm creative workers, harm film training, harm creativity, harm public opinion of sex workers, help monopolies, and open the Commission up to jurisdictional and Charter-based legal challenges."
Broader Context of Online Streaming Act
This policy change arrives as the CRTC finalizes implementation details for the Online Streaming Act, which became law in 2023. This legislation extends Canadian content protocols to the online world, potentially affecting platforms from YouTube to Netflix.
Prior to this exemption, there was concern that the Online Streaming Act's powers could apply to adult streaming platforms. Notably, PornHub, the world's most-visited Canadian website, is headquartered in Montreal and could have faced not only content quotas but other CRTC mandates including closed captioning requirements, Indigenous language usage, and ethnic representation quotas for performers.
The CRTC's decision to create this exemption for adult content represents a pragmatic acknowledgment of the unique challenges facing the pornography industry in meeting traditional Canadian content requirements while still implementing broader digital content regulations under the Online Streaming Act framework.
