By Ahmad Hathout
TORONTO – Corus CEO Doug Murphy reiterated Thursday the need for the CRTC to take immediate action on lessening Canadian content requirements ahead of the implementation of a new Broadcasting Act policy to force foreign streamers to contribute to those requirements.
Praising the death of the old Broadcasting Act and the introduction of three consultations on the implementation of the Online Streaming Act, Murphy said the CRTC needs to set its sights on the now as broadcasters are being squeezed financially.
“We continue to urge the regulator through those consultations and other forums to revisit the obligations on Canadian broadcasters as soon as possible,” Murphy said during the media company’s third quarter fiscal earnings conference call Thursday.
“Leveling the playing field not only means regulating foreign players but recalibrating and reducing outdated spending regulations and offering more flexibility to Canadian companies like Corus,” he added.
Corus filed an application with the CRTC in November to reduce its Canadian content spending obligations, which was opposed by creative unions whose workers are partly dependent on the regulatory funds those obligations go toward.
But it’s not just Corus. Rogers, Bell, Quebecor and Cogeco have all asked for some type of relief from the regulator as the industry is struggling with a poor advertising climate.
Murphy also lamented Thursday that the CRTC is also forcing the payment of CanCon obligations that were deferred during the pandemic.
This month, the regulator denied a request from SiriusXM to defer its CanCon obligations because it’s suffering from a financial crunch.
These developments “have put unacceptable pressure on our financial performance,” Murphy said Thursday. “To protect our margins, we are focused on driving efficiencies and productivity. A far-reaching enterprise-wide cost review remains in effect as we leave no stone unturned in an effort to reduce all costs to offset lower advertising revenue.”
The pure-play media company has already announced a number of layoffs as part of that cost review.
Factoring television and radio, the company reported a revenue decrease of 8 per cent to $371.2 million in the three months that ended May 31 compared to the same period last year. Profit in those segments combined declined 22 per cent to $96.9 million for the quarter compared to the same period.
“The advertising recession which began last summer continues and has negatively impacted our revenues and third quarter results,” said Murphy in a press release.
“As we balance the near-term challenges, we are successfully evolving our business into a powerful multi-platform aggregator of premium video with leading cross platform monetization capabilities. Our impressive premium video content revealed at Corus’ recent sales upfront will be available for all audiences across Global, our specialty networks and streaming portfolio.”
