Corus wants in on local news fund post Rogers-Shaw

Corus Entertainment Inc. has written to the CRTC asking whether or not that the company will be allowed to avail of the Independent Local News Fund in the wake of Rogers Communications Inc.'s acquisition of Shaw Communications. Corus was founded as Shaw Radio in the 1980s, and spun-off from Shaw in the 1990s. In 2019, Shaw sold its stake in Corus. When the CRTC was reviewing Rogers' acquisition of Shaw's broadcasting assets, the regulator heard concerns from Corus and others that the merged Rogers-Shaw would redirect some $13 million in annual local expression funding from Corus's Global stations over to competitor Rogers-owned Citytv stations. Now that the transaction has officially closed after receiving the final stamp of approval from the Department of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development (ISED), Corus is wrote in its application that should Rogers yank the money as it said it would, Corus' stations "will soon be the only private conventional stations in the country that deliver locally reflective news but cannot access regulated local news funding under the local and community television policy." "Corus’ entry to the ILNF will best serve regulatory policy and represent the fairest solution. Conversely, denying or delaying this request would leave local Global Television stations across Canada in a precarious and unduly disadvantaged position, which could impact their news operations," Corus wrote in the May 10 application, published to the CRTC's website Wednesday. Corus adds that its television stations have been beset by dropping profits and dried up advertising revenue. Previously, the station could afford to subsidize its news products with advertising revenue from prime-time programming. Not so in recent years, Corus argued, pointing to a nine per cent drop in advertising revenue between Sep. 1, 2022 and Feb. 28, 2023 over the previous year. "To address these challenges, our company is undergoing an enterprise-wide cost review extending to all business units. Already in a difficult financial situation, local Global stations can ill-afford to lose regulated support for news," Corus submitted. At the TD Securities annual telecom and media conference on Wednesday, Corus CEO Doug Murphy said that he thought the advertising slump was still a holdover of the pandemic, and not a structural change. "I don't think this is a macro economic contraction at this time, I think it's still primarily pandemic related," Murphy said. "I think that will work itself out. I do. Once things begin to, sort of, normalize. But at the moment we're still seeing this outcome," the CEO said. Murphy also told investors that the company had recently conducted a fourth round of layoffs, with "more to come." In its application to the CRTC, Corus also sought to portray the urgency of the situation. "Denying or delaying this request would perpetuate the current unfair situation indefinitely and make it challenging for Global stations to sustain news operations at current levels," Corus wrote. "That outcome would plainly undermine the CRTC’s local and community television policy, which affirmed that 'private local television stations are in need of support if they are to continue to offer high-quality, locally reflective news.'" — Reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca.

Corus wants in on local news fund post Rogers-Shaw

Broadcast | May 26, 2023

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Corus wants in on local news fund post Rogers-Shaw

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