Global News is “on the brink,” an executive with the Canada's number three television network yesterday told a Senate hearing. The assessment came despite millions in federal subsidies and a 38% profit margin in TV last year..“News is a challenging business,” Troy Reeb, executive vice president of Global’s parent company Corus Entertainment Inc., testified at the Senate transport and communications committee. “Traditionally we have offset our news losses through more profitable entertainment programming, but this is no longer a feasible strategy,” said Reeb..“Our ability to provide local, fact-based news in large parts of the country, in small markets, in places like the English-language minority community in Montréal, it all teeters on the brink,” said Reeb..According to Blacklock's Reporter, Global and other TV broadcasters from the outbreak of the pandemic received $103.6 million in direct cash grants including federal wage subsidies, according to an August 23 CRTC report Annual Highlights Of The Broadcasting Sector. Regulators also waived $36.5 million in mandatory industry licensing fees..Reeb said the company still required “measures to support news.” He did not elaborate. “The status quo is not sustainable,” said Reeb, adding: “The future of an entire Canadian industry is hanging in the balance.”.“We can no longer do this alone,” said Reeb. Corus Entertainment in its last Annual Report detailed $194.6 million in net income from TV and radio. Television revenues increased 3%. Profit margins were 38% in television and 15% in radio..“You’re saying this one year increase is just an anomaly?” asked Senator Donna Dasko (Ont.). “Correct,” replied Vice President Reeb..“It’s a money losing business in television that is subsidized by entertainment programming,” said Reeb. “It’s those cross-subsidies that can no longer be provided to news and we can only carry so many burdens.”.“We have all these other quotas, fees, requirements for Canadian content, requirements on independent production, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, and at the same time have foreign competitors who come in and take audiences at the same time as Facebook and Google take advertising dollars,” said Reeb..“Netflix and Amazon compete with us for audiences and are now taking more of it than ever,” said Reeb. “The same US studios that used to license us content for Canadian television are now going around Canadian broadcasters to take it directly to Canadians themselves.”.Corus Entertainment operates 15 television and 39 radio stations in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Barrie, Durham, Guelph, Hamilton, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Peterborough, Montréal, Saint John and Halifax. The corporation also operates 33 specialty TV channels like YTV, the History Channel and Food Network Canada.
