CRTC might ease Corus’ Canadian content spending requirements after profit plunge | CityNews Calgary

Canada’s telecommunications regulator says it’s trying to ease some Canadian content material spending necessities for Corus Entertainment Inc. after the corporate stated in a submitting its monetary state of affairs is more and more dire.

Corus vice-president and affiliate basic counsel Matt Thompson wrote to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission final week, asking the regulator to “urgently” change some circumstances for its English-language tv stations and discretionary companies.

That contains decreasing its obligation to spend 8.5 per cent of revenues on applications of nationwide curiosity for its English-language stations to 5 per cent, as Corus cites a 22 per cent drop in third-quarter income this 12 months in contrast with the identical interval in 2022.

The firm says it’s dealing with a number of challenges, together with current strikes by the Writer’s Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild within the U.S. which have affected its TV lineup, together with ongoing excessive inflation that has raised programming prices whereas lowering promoting demand.

CRTC secretary basic Marc Morin responded to the appliance on Thursday, saying the regulator is in favour of granting the corporate’s request however will first maintain a session on the proposals.

In June, Bell Canada additionally submitted two functions to the CRTC, which have but to be dominated upon, asking the regulator to waive native news and Canadian programming necessities for its tv stations amid monetary pressure.

This report by The Canadian Press was first printed Oct. 20, 2023.

Companies on this story: (TSX:CJR.B, TSX:BCE)

The Canadian Press