With Netflix jumping into offering their own original content, Canadian broadcasters are saying the content delivery service should be regulated like a broadcast network.

Netflix will begin streaming an original series, House of Cards next year.  And when it does, broadcasters in Canada want the CRTC to regulate the service.

“It is now public knowledge that a foreign over-the-top service operating in Canada has commissioned new exclusive dramatic content, including for the Canadian market,” the Canuck broadcasters wrote to the CRTC in an April 1 letter, without naming Netflix directly.

Arguing Netflix Canada is financing its own dramas, and acting as an online broadcaster, the Canadian broadcasters in the April 1 letter urged the Canadian regulator to launch a public process “to determine whether and how such non-Canadian companies should support Canadian cultural programming.”

Netflix spokesman Steve Swasey, responding to the Canadian broadcasters’ formal overture to the CRTC, repeated opposition to Netflix Canada coming under local regulation. “Whether it’s Netflix, Skype, YouTube or other Internet video providers, an unregulated approach to the Internet is effective for consumers,” he said.

The CRTC has until now resisted calls to regulate Netflix Canada, arguing it aggregates content, and that legislative changes are required before Netflix or other U.S. digital platforms spilling into the Canadian market could be considered online broadcasters.