The Canadian Radio and Television Commission (CTRC) is rolling back its support for documentary. The news comes in the wake of last week’s efforts to modernize the Broadcasting Act, which saw the CRTC remove the protection for Programs of National Interest (PNIs).
During last year’s extensive CRTC hearings, many Canadian industry bodies advocated for the preservation of PNIs, which historically supported the creation of programming that is less traditionally commercial and presents culturally and socially significant benefits to Canadians. This includes long-form documentaries. The CRTC cites the increased availability of programs traditionally supported as PNIs through on-demand services among the rationale for the termination of the program. However, few Canadian feature documentaries find a home on the major streaming platforms.
The news is drawing fierce criticism from industry bodies. “Historically, market-driven approaches have not reliably sustained public-interest documentary production in Canada,” notes Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) executive director Julian Carrington in a statement. “Documentary has long relied on public policy supports, including broadcaster obligations and targeted regulatory measures such as PNI, precisely because the market alone has not consistently supported the forms of documentary storytelling most closely tied to civic discourse, cultural memory, democratic accountability, regional expression, and Canadian cultural sovereignty.
“Recent industry data reinforces these concerns. DOC’s research has found significant declines in long-form documentary production and financing in recent years, including major reductions in single-episode documentary production volume and inflation-adjusted spending on long-form documentary production,” DOC continues. “At the same time, commercially oriented nonfiction formats have continued to expand within the streaming environment. These trends suggest that public-interest documentary faces increasing structural pressures within an increasingly market-driven system.”
DOC’s previous research indicated a decline in investment in feature-length documentaries in Canada, research that actually supports the need to preserve PNIs. The CRTC’s decision comes as streamers increasingly favour sensationalist documentaries and celebrity docs in which the stars themselves serve as producers. Moreover, festival circuit hits often struggle to find a home on major platforms if their stories engage in sensitive material.
Meanwhile, DOC’s previous research indicates increased spending on doc series. However, this trend often puts an emphasis on house style that limits personal expression and market viability. Many of these series also reflect a content shift that aligns closer to lifestyle or reality programming than actual documentary. The CRTC’s decision means that non-fiction filmmakers may have to toe the line with commercial practices, and therefore compromise on the social and cultural engagement that PNIs traditionally protected, in order to fund and produce their work.
“This decision creates significant uncertainty regarding the long-term sustainability of public-interest documentary production in Canada,” adds DOC. “There is a real risk that investment increasingly shifts toward commercially optimized nonfiction formats rather than independently produced public-interest documentary rooted in Canadian civic, regional, and cultural experience.”
Other industry bodies agree. “For decades, PNI requirements ensured dedicated investments in Canadian dramatic programming, documentaries and genres that sustain Canadian creative careers, our unique Canadian voices, production companies, and long-term cultural infrastructure,” says Warren P. Sonoda, President of the Directors’ Guild of Canada (DGC) in a release. “The CRTC decision to remove those protections creates profound uncertainty at a moment when the Canadian production industry is already under extraordinary pressure.”
The DGC notes that the CRTC’s backtracking on PNIs has significant implications for Canadian content and Canadian creatives. This includes potential threats to sustained employment, fair representation for equity-deserving groups, and the creative infrastructure across independent producers and production companies.
Commentator Michael Geist echoes the latter sentiment in his column, noting that rolling back PNIs means “fewer guarantees for independent producer support.”
The Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) notes that the threat crosses genres. “Drama, kids’ shows, animation, and documentaries are fundamentally at-risk genres of Canadian programming,” says WGC president Bruce Smith in a statement. “When we talk about the need to support Canadian content and Canadian voices, it is the vulnerability of these genres in particular that is at the root of the discussion.”
“[D]ocumentary should not simply be viewed as an “at-risk” genre, but as essential cultural and democratic infrastructure that contributes to civic memory, democratic discourse, media plurality, and Canadian cultural sovereignty. Its viability cannot be left to market forces alone,” DOC concludes in its statement.
