The Canadian government has quietly banned Netflix, Prime Video, and other major streaming platforms from federal networks after uncovering that employees were binging terabytes of content during work hours.
According to newly released documents obtained by the state broadcaster, federal staff across 45 departments were using government resources to stream thousands of hours of movies and shows every month.
Shared Services Canada (SSC), the agency overseeing federal IT, blocked access to platforms like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and Hulu in December 2024.
While officials initially claimed the services had “no business value,” internal memos now reveal the move stemmed from concerns over employee productivity, not bandwidth strain.
Federal employees caught streaming Netflix at work
Public Services and Procurement Canada alone clocked nearly 3 terabytes per month in streaming traffic, the equivalent of over 3,000 hours of standard-definition video.
The Privy Council Office had streamed 1.5 TB while Global Affairs Canada, the Canada Revenue Agency, Fisheries and Oceans (East), and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada had streamed around 0.75 TB each.
Even more shocking: nearly 10 terabytes of streaming was logged on the federal government’s guest Wi-Fi in just one month.
Despite the massive usage, internal assessments showed the video traffic wasn’t overloading the government’s infrastructure. Instead, officials saw it as a “people management” problem — with staff spending work hours glued to screens.
The report included a bar chart outlining top offenders and noted that even at low video quality, a single terabyte represents at least 1,000 hours of streaming. In high definition, that’s roughly 340 hours per terabyte.
The ban went into effect across departments, including the Treasury Board Secretariat, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and Crown-Indigenous Relations, all of which appeared in the top 10 for usage.
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