By Ahmad Hathout
The Canadian Media Producers Association is asking the Federal Court of Appeal to hear an appeal challenging the CRTC’s decision to grant Corus regulatory relief of its Canadian content spending obligations, alleging the media company has been delinquent on its obligations to independent content.
The CRTC in May reduced until the next licence renewal date Corus’s obligations to programs of national interest (PNI) from 8.5 per cent of previous year’s revenues to five per cent, which is exactly what the pure play media company asked for because it was struggling financially against the backdrop of a bad advertising environment.
But the CMPA, which represents independent producers who are the recipients of these financial obligations, is alleging in court documents filed Wednesday that the CRTC should’ve never granted relief because Corus allegedly has not held up its part of the bargain: full commitment to 75 per cent of its PNI spending toward independent productions.
“Based on Corus’ own aggregate annual returns, which it publishes to the CRTC, Corus has incurred an independent PNI shortfall of approximately $41 million since 2017-2018,” the CMPA said in a notice of application to the appeal court. “This shortfall is noncompliant, and it dramatically exceeds any flexibility that Corus’ conditions of service might have provided or that might have been available to it by virtue of the COVID-19-related relief from those conditions extended in Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2021-274,” which deferred payment obligations for private broadcasters.
“This factual error renders the CRTC’s decision unreasonable for various reasons,” the CMPA continues. “Corus’ persistent failure to comply with the independent PNI requirement was a relevant consideration bearing on the CRTC’s decision — in particular, it bore on whether Corus should be relieved from that very requirement in any way.
“Additionally, the Broadcasting Act requires the CRTC to make orders imposing conditions on the carrying on of broadcasting undertakings that it considers appropriate for the implementation of the broadcasting policy set out in the Act,” the organization continued. “By conferring regulatory flexibility on Corus notwithstanding its failure to abide by the independent PNI requirement, the CRTC undermined that policy. The failure to properly account for all of this was unreasonable.”
When Corus filed its original appeal applications, creative unions asked the CRTC to reject it on the basis that this isn’t the time for such an application in part because the CRTC had been – and still is – in the middle of implementing the Online Streaming Act, which will broaden the CanCon support base to the previously-exempt online streamers.
But Corus hasn’t been the only one pleading with the CRTC to be a little bit more flexible with the CanCon obligations. The large broadcasters are still asking the CRTC to address the issue, even after the regulator put on hold their applications asking same to focus on implementing the new Broadcasting Act.
The CMPA was one of 19 groups that successfully petitioned cabinet to force the CRTC to reconsider a decision that reduced the PNI spend from 8.5 to five per cent of previous year’s revenues. Of course, the CRTC kept the 8.5 per cent.
Cartt did not hear back from Corus in time for publishing.
