GATINEAU – Corus Entertainment must be included in the group-based licensing regime so as to better compete with its fellow broadcasters, the company said during its licence renewal hearing on Tuesday.
John Cassaday, president and CEO of Corus, explained that despite the fact it only owns a couple of small local broadcasters (CHEX Peterborough and CKWS Kingston) the group approache enables the primarily pay and specialty company to more flexibly spend money where needed.
“What this group-based licensing approach would allow us to do is to allocate our programming to those areas that have either the greatest strategic need or the greatest strategic opportunity,“ he said. “Secondly…we felt it was essential that we have an opportunity to have a voice at the same time as [our competitors] and ensure that we come out of this hearing with similar conditions of licence so that we can ensure that we’re able to compete effectively in the future.”
During its opening remarks, Corus maintained that given the right circumstances, it will actually spend more on Canadian programming. Those circumstances include: harmonizing Canadian content levels for category A services; eliminating obligations regarding the broadcast of non-North American programming on W Network and YTV; amending the manner is which programming must be targeted and scheduling restrictions on YTV; changing the amount of video clips on CMT; and retaining the 150% time credit for Canadian feature films on Movie Central.
Corus proposes a CPE level of 29%.
Bill Knight, vice-president and head of business development and planning, noted that the proposed Cancon spending level represents a “significant increase” from historical levels, adding that over the next licence term, Corus expects to generate $127.9 million in additional revenues and spend an additional $53 million on Canadian programming.
Corus also used the oral hearing to propose three amendments to its application: a minor change to the individual CPEs for Category A services; confirmation that the company will report CPE on a cash outlay basis; and a change to the language regarding described video.
While Corus’ appearance was considerably more amicable than both Bell’s and Rogers’, there was an interesting exchange with respect to the rebranding of Viva, which was Canadian Learning Television (CLT), into the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and whether it still meets the conditions of licence (CoL).
The channel, CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein noted, has CoLs which say it is to be a national English language specialty television service which provides formal and informal educational programming and learning opportunities that are generally focused on adult education. Educational programs should come from the full spectrum and will be undertaken in co-operation with colleges, universities and training institutions.
“Doesn’t sound like Oprah Winfrey Network to me?” he asked.
Gary Maavara, executive VP and general counsel, replied that the OWN meets all the conditions of the nature of service.
“Oprah Winfrey and the whole range of the program service really epitomizes the nature of service both on a broad attitudinal perspective but also with respect to the specific programming. There are formal educational elements to the schedule, we are aligned with educational institutions in that regard. But also the program service, basically what Oprah Winfrey has done…was show that learning doesn’t have to be dull. The exploration of learning can in fact be quite entertaining and interesting and on close examination of those programs that really comes through.”
Referring to genre exclusivity and the calls from Rogers earlier in the day to do away of the rule, von Finckenstein noted it “has become so amorphous and so difficult” and “here we have a perfect example. I also think that if you ask the average person, what is Oprah Winfrey, they wouldn’t think of education. That’s not exactly what comes to mind. It’s very good entertainment.”
CEO Cassaday also added the company would not object to opening up the learning genre to other competitors.
The hearing continues Wednesday as Shaw Media faces the panel.
