Broadcasting Reform in Canada: The Case for a Georgist View of the Audience Commodity.

The article examines the Government of Canada's Online Streaming Act (Bill C-11) and its attempt to regulate online streaming services under the Broadcasting Act, highlighting the lack of a clear, technology-neutral definition of "broadcasting" in the internet era. It proposes a Georgist political economy framework that reinterprets Dallas Smythe's concept of the "audience commodity" by focusing on human attention as a scarce resource, rather than on transmission methods or audience labor. This resource-centric view defines broadcasting as the editorial control of a telecommunications channel designed to capture and commodify audience attention, thereby providing a clearer basis for regulation that aligns with contemporary media realities and public interest objectives. The article argues that shifting the regulatory focus from transmission to control over attention bottlenecks can better distinguish broadcasting activities from other online media uses and inform more effective policy formation regarding platforms, audiences, and content creators.