CBC/Radio-Canada has filed an software in Federal Court to battle an order directing it to reveal subscriber numbers for its Gem streaming service.
The knowledge commissioner ordered CBC to make out there the variety of paid subscribers to Gem following an access-to-information request for the info.
CBC/Radio-Canada president Marie-Philippe Bouchard advised The Canadian Press the subscriber numbers are delicate industrial info.
That confidentiality issues in terms of issues like industrial negotiations on bundling Gem with different streaming companies, Bouchard added.
The general public broadcaster is “charged with making a few of our funds out of economic relationships,” she mentioned.
“And that must be performed based on the principles of the market. And so we’re discovering ourselves, with this ruling, uncomfortable with the interpretation.”
In refusing to reveal the numbers, CBC cited exemptions for programming actions and data that might hurt its aggressive place.
In her remaining report on the access-to-information grievance, Data Commissioner Caroline Maynard wrote that whereas the subscriber numbers relate to CBC’s programming actions, in addition they relate to its normal administration — which implies the exemption to disclosure doesn’t apply.
Maynard mentioned that whereas “CBC did determine attainable harms to its aggressive place or to ongoing negotiations, it didn’t reveal that there was an inexpensive expectation that these harms might happen, nicely past a mere chance.”
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The knowledge commissioner’s ruling contradicts the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Fee’s interpretation of what constitutes “delicate industrial info,” Bouchard mentioned.
Bouchard mentioned CBC/Radio-Canada needs the courts to offer readability on the problem.
CBC launched the Gem streaming service, which has each paid and free variations, in 2018. The paid model, which prices $5.99 a month, consists of ad-free on-demand streaming and a stream of CBC’s 24-hour information channel, CBC Information Community.
Paid subscribers “usually are not what makes Gem,” Bouchard mentioned. “Gem is principally a free-to-user service. And the paid half is mostly a commodity for individuals who don’t need promoting.”
CBC doesn’t disclose the variety of paid or unpaid subscribers to Gem.
In its discover of software, CBC/Radio-Canada asks the court docket to put aside the data commissioner’s order and declare that Gem data are exempt from disclosure.
It argues the general public broadcaster “operates in a extremely aggressive atmosphere by which overseas and home personal and neighborhood broadcasters and different digital streamers provide their very own programming on their respective distribution platforms.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
