CRTC grants Canadian content spending relief for Corus, but says other asks must wait
Canada’s broadcasting regulator has granted Corus Entertainment Inc.’s request to ease some of its Canadian content spending requirements after the company warned of an increasingly dire financial situation.
The CRTC released a decision Monday approving Corus’ plea to lower its obligated spending on programs of national interest for its English-language stations to five per cent of revenue from 8.5 per cent. It also granted a request to extend a repayment deadline for under-expenditures of Canadian programming requirements.
The broadcaster asked the regulator to “urgently” make the changes last October, saying the changes would provide “much needed flexibility” amid programming and advertising uncertainty, as well as “severely constrained” finances.
“The commission finds that it would be appropriate and justified to approve Corus’ requests for regulatory relief … given Corus’ unique regulatory status and its particular financial situation,” the decision stated.
Corus Entertainment is the parent company of Global News.
The CRTC said the emergency request was reasonable because it was tailored to Corus’ specific circumstances, noting its spending on programs of national interest is among the highest of all private broadcasters.
It added the risk of Corus exiting the Canadian broadcasting landscape “would greatly reduce the options Canadian viewers have for content,” calling Corus a vital source of news through its Global Television Network, along with being the largest provider of independent programming in Canada.
Last fall, Corus president and CEO Doug Murphy said the company was hit hard by advertising revenue declines during strikes by the Writer’s Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild in the U.S. that affected
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