THERE ARE NO WALLS at Corus Quay. Not even in the CEO, John Cassaday’s office. Anyone working there and not in a board room or studio can stand up, look across the building and see outside. It’s open and airy. Work spaces are flexible and unique. There’s a beach.
One of the design principles behind the building which has only been open about a year, is something Cassaday calls the “democratization of light” where “everybody has equal access to light, so there’s no floor-to-ceiling walls except for meeting rooms,” he said.
That principle, one could say, is in Corus’ blood nowadays. Cassaday’s push for consumers to be able to see and hear the company’s programming could be termed a “democratization of content.” He wants to drive radio and TV content for consumption on as many devices as possible, believing new media to be additive to traditional media channels. He isn’t afraid of the new over-the-top video services and believes the more ways consumers can watch TV, see movies or listen to radio, the better for everyone.
And the new building and it’s state-of-the-art technology actually helps enable that. Until Corus Quay, the company was spread out across a dozen buildings in Toronto with old, legacy systems making content conversion difficult. And now?
“When we had Rogers in here, we said we now we can get you whatever you want on whatever platform you want in whatever language you want, so if they would like us to deliver a version of Treehouse in Spanish? No problem. You want it for your mobile phones? Monday or Tuesday good?”
But in order to let Corus battle best for eyeballs and ears, some changes are required. Regulatory ones. For example, it needs the ability to spend money on what it does best he said – both to us and to the CRTC during last month’s group-based licensing hearing. Actually, the engaging CEO said quite a lot during our chat. What follows is an edited transcript of a recent conversation Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien had with Cassaday.
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