CRTC considers regulatory relief for Corus as profits decline

The CRTC is proposing to loosen some of Corus Entertainment Inc.’s regulatory requirements after the company’s finances faced a particularly hard year. The commission’s Thursday announcement comes in response to an Oct. 11 application from the broadcaster, asking the CRTC to grant it immediate relief in light of its ongoing financial challenges. Corus said these challenges have been exacerbated since the company first asked for relief last November, citing inflation and production shutdowns due to the strikes by the Writer’s Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. “Corus has found itself in a unique financial situation,” said the CRTC, pointing to a debt ratio that has increased to “unacceptable levels” after a 61 per cent free cash flow decrease over the previous year, and “rapidly declining profitability.” The company repeated its “key requests” from its November application, asking the CRTC to temporarily reduce its programs of national interest (PNI) expenditure requirements from 8.5 per cent to 5 per cent of last year’s revenues, and extend the deadline to pay Canadian programming expenditure (CPE) shortfalls. “Given the urgency of the situation, the commission determines that it is appropriate to give immediate consideration to Corus’ application on an exceptional basis,” said the regulator. Corus is not the only broadcaster to have asked to have its regulatory obligations lightened recently, but the CRTC noted that as Canada’s largest non-vertically integrated private broadcaster, its request deserves special consideration. “We believe the proposed Cancon relief for Corus is somewhat bitter-sweet at this juncture,” said RBC analyst Drew McReynolds, explaining that although this will provide the broadcaster with some much needed relief, it “comes after years (and decades) of structural change that has meaningfully impacted Canadian broadcasting profitability.” Anyone interested will have until Nov. 3 to submit interventions, to which Corus will have until Nov. 8 to reply. – Reporting by Phalen Tynes-MacDonald at pcreed@thewirereport.ca and editing by Jenna Cocullo at jcocullo@thewirereport.ca

CRTC considers regulatory relief for Corus as profits decline

Broadcast | October 20, 2023

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CRTC considers regulatory relief for Corus as profits decline

Broadcast | October 20, 2023

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