Financially distressed Corus Entertainment Inc. CJR-B-T is arguing that Rogers Communications Inc. RCI-B-T has used its dominant industry position to unfairly disadvantage Corus and other independent media companies, according to a complaint filed with Canada’s broadcasting regulator.
In its July 26 filing, Corus alleges that Rogers has failed to meet conditions set by the regulator when it approved Rogers’s $20-billion takeover of Shaw’s broadcasting services.
Toronto-based Corus, which owns Global News as well as dozens of television and radio stations across Canada, is controlled by the Shaw family, which sold its telecom company Shaw Communications Inc. to Rogers in 2023. The Shaw family holds a class of Corus shares that gives them roughly 86-per-cent voting control over the company.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) attached a number of conditions to its 2022 approval of the sale intended to encourage the development of Canadian programming. The commission noted at the time that it “expects Rogers to treat independent undertakings fairly” and said it would monitor the Toronto-based telecom and media giant’s relationships with independent programmers.
“Instead of dealing with independent undertakings fairly as the Commission instructed it to do, [Rogers] has weaponized its more dominant position by aggressively targeting Corus and other independents with unduly disadvantageous treatment,” Corus alleges in its filing to the CRTC.
Without action from the CRTC, Corus said it fears that it won’t be possible to ensure independent Canadian broadcasters can continue to play a role within the country’s broadcasting system.
Central to the complaint is Rogers’s partnership with Walt Disney Co. to promote the entertainment giant’s Disney+ streaming service to Rogers customers. Corus is arguing that Rogers’s efforts to promote Disney+ undercut Corus’s Disney-themed channels.
In June, Corus learned that Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. would not renew its Canadian rights to five popular specialty channels, including HGTV and Food Network, at the end of the year because Rogers had won the rights to take over those channels starting in 2025.
Corus argues that Rogers’s actions “are clearly part of a larger, predatory strategy to ‘cut out the middle company’ ” by using its scale to acquire the rights to foreign programming so that it can launch its own competitive channels, undercutting independent Canadian programmers.
Rogers spokesperson Sarah Schmidt said Corus is trying to force service providers to carry channels that customers no longer wish to watch.
“Sadly, Corus has not kept up with the demands of Canadians and is now looking for the regulator to protect their broken business model while we’re focused on meeting our customers’ changing viewing habits. This baseless complaint is designed to prevent us from providing Canadians with the content they want on their platform of choice,” Ms. Schmidt said in a statement.
Corus is in the midst of a debt crisis and said last month that it has only until Sept. 1 to negotiate some form of relief with its lenders. The company has undertaken significant cost-cutting measures, axing roughly 800 jobs, or about 25 per cent of its total work force.
Corus spokesperson Melissa Eckersley said the company filed the complaint “to address unfair treatment from Rogers, which is both our largest distributor and a media competitor.”
“A regulatory review of structural relationships and how they are governed in the industry is urgently needed, and we understand the CRTC is planning to conduct one later this year. Rogers’ unfair, anti-competitive treatment towards Corus must not be allowed to stand and we are asking the CRTC to take swift action,” Ms. Eckersley said.