Corus has already had its Can-Con obligations reduced to 5% of top line revenue.
For comparison.........when the license was issued for what was then Life Network (now slice), the obligation was 70%..
That, in fairness was extreme, but 30% would be more historically normative.
I always felt this was inadequate.
The nominal requirement for broadcasters historically was 60% Can-Con over the broadcast day, and 50% in primetime. If you wanted to deliver that, it made no real sense to me that you invest less than 50% of topline revenue.
That isn't as onerous as one might think, in the past, both news and sports were highly profitable offerings that filled a lot of that quota.
Additionally, no one should expect a scripted 60 minute Canadian drama to recover its costs domestically, that should be done the same way others do, by licensing the content around the world.
Canadian broadcasters have always been immensely lazy in this regard; though the CRTC didn't entirely help matters with a big push for independent production which would have found that more challenging and limited returns for the likes of Bell/Corus.
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Tacking differently here...........I don't expect the feds to do this............but it would seem an ideal moment to give CBC one-time funds to pick Corus bones clean. Pick up the desirable IP (Bryan Bauemler for example) and maybe use one cable spot that's well positioned to offer CBC lifestyle programs (cooking, home improvement etc.) as well as get the best radio assets to add additional markets CBC Radio 1/2 and launch CBC Radio 3 terrestrially in Toronto.
Radio, being commercial free would require some new operating funds, but the rest should be accretive.
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