The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has granted Corus Entertainment permission to spend less money on Canadian content in light of the media company's warnings of an increasingly dire financial situation, City News reports.
Corus has now received the approval to decrease the percentage of its revenue put toward programs of national interest for its English-speaking stations from 8.5 to five percent. Likewise, the CRTC has given the company its requested extension on the deadline for repayment for under-expenditures of CanCon programming requirements.
Last October, the broadcaster asked the regulator to make changes "urgently" that would give Corus "much-needed flexibility" amid "severely constrained" finances and uncertainty surrounding advertising and programming. The CRTC noted that Corus's spending on national interest is among the highest of all private broadcasters in the country.
However, the regulating body has asked that all other broadcasters seeking relief — especially related to local news and CanCon programming — to hold off, as this will be addressed as part of the CRTC's ongoing consultation to modernize Canada's framework for broadcasting.
In other recent Corus news, the broadcaster recently expanded the iHeartRadio Canada network with the addition of 39 Corus radio stations to iHeart.com and the iHeartRadio app [via Global News]. iHeartRadio Canada is owned by Bell Media — the media conglomerate that laid off 4,800 staffers and sold 45 radio stations back in February.