Corus Entertainment

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Corus Entertainment Inc.
Public
Traded as
Industry Media, broadcasting
Predecessor Alliance Atlantis
Canwest Global Communications
Shaw Media
Western International Communications
Founded Toronto, Ontario (1999)
Headquarters Corus Quay
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Key people
  • Doug Murphy (President/CEO)
  • Heather Shaw (executive chair)
Revenue Increase$833 million CAD (2014)
Number of employees
 2,086 (2008)[1]
Website www.corusent.com

Corus Entertainment is a Canadian media and broadcasting company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, and has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. Corus Entertainment's voting majority is held by the company's founder JR Shaw and his family, and a 39% stake of Corus stock is owned by Shaw Communications.[2]

Corus has a large presence in Canadian broadcasting, as owner of the national Global Television Network, 39 radio stations, and a portfolio of 45 specialty television services. Corus is especially prominent within the children's television market, through its ownership of the domestic YTV, Treehouse TV and Teletoon/Télétoon networks, and localized versions of the United States channels Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Disney XD and Nickelodeon, along with the animation studio Nelvana and book publisher Kids Can Press.

The second incarnation of Shaw's media division—formed from the properties of the defunct Canwest Global—was brought under the control of Corus on April 1, 2016, giving it control of the over-the-air Global network, and 19 additional specialty channels.

History[edit]

Establishment[edit]

Corus Entertainment logo used from 1999 until April 1, 2016.

In September 1998, JR Shaw and Shaw Media CEO John Cassaday announced plans for Shaw Communications to spin-out its media properties, including radio stations and television specialty channels, into a new company. The spin-out would leave Shaw as a "pure play" telecommunications company.[3] The decision to spin out the properties, into what would be known as Corus Entertainment, was meant to comply with Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recommendations at the time which discouraged vertical integration by cable companies who also owned media properties. Corus would be a separate, publicly-traded company, first listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in September 1999, but would still be primarily controlled by the Shaw family.[4][5]

In September 1999, Corus acquired the broadcasting assets of the Power Corporation of Canada, which included four television stations and sixteen radio stations.[6] In October 1999, it was announced that as part of the break-up of Western International Communications (WIC), Corus would acquire the company's 12 radio stations and most of its specialty channels, including stakes in Family Channel, SuperChannel and MovieMax!.[4]

Growth, acquisitions[edit]

In September 2000, after negotiations and rumored offers by other studios, Corus announced that it would acquire the Toronto-based animation studio Nelvana for $540 million; the deal was considered to be a compliment to its children's television networks, including YTV and Treehouse TV, and its stakes in Family and Teletoon—networks which had already licensed Nelvana programs in the past. Corus also stated that it planned to use the purchase to help launch a preschool-oriented cable network in the United States.[7]

In March 2001, in response to complaints by the CRTC over its near-monopoly on ownership of children's specialty channels in Canada, Corus sold its stake in Family Channel to Astral Media for $126.9 million.[8] Corus also sold its stake in Western Canada pay-per-view service Viewers Choice to Shaw for $22.6 million, and acquired the Women's Television Network (WTN) from Shaw for $132.6 million. Shaw had acquired WTN's parent company, Moffat Communications, in order to gain control of the company's cablesystem assets.[8] In August 2002, Corus sold CKDO and CKGE-FM to Durham Radio.[9]

In March 2004, Corus and Astral announced that it would acquire and swap radio stations in Quebec; Corus acquired the Radiomédia network (including CKAC) and Quebec City's CFOM, while Astral acquired CFVM-FM Amqui, CJOI-FM and CIKI-FM Rimouski, CFZZ-FM Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, and CJDM-FM Drummondville. Corus also sold its Red Deer, Alberta stations CKGY-FM and CIZZ-FM to Newcap Radio.[10][11][12]

In July 2007, Corus acquired CKBT-FM and CJZZ from Canwest.[13] The following month, Corus announced the sale of CHRC to a group of local Quebec City businessmen led by Michel Cadrin.[14]

Additional partnerships, Corus Québec sale[edit]

Also in August 2007, Corus announced a partnership with Hearst Corporation to launch Cosmopolitan TV.[15] In March 2008, CTVglobemedia sold Canadian Learning Television to Corus for $73 million[16] Corus launched a Canadian version of Nickelodeon on November 2, 2009,[17] replacing Discovery Kids. In 2010, Corus's sister company Shaw Communications re-entered the broadcasting industry through its acquisition of the media assets of the bankrupt Canwest, which re-formed the Shaw Media division.[18]

On April 30, 2010, Corus announced that it would sell its Québec radio stations, with the exception of CKRS, to Cogeco for $80 million, pending CRTC approval. Corus cited their low profitability in comparison to their stations elsewhere as reasoning for the sale.[19][20] On June 25, it was reported that Corus had agreed to sell CKRS to Radio Saguenay, a local business group.[21] The sale of the Corus Québec stations was approved by the CRTC on December 17, 2010, on the condition that Cogeco-owned CJEC-FM and Corus-owned CFEL-FM and CKOY-FM be sold to another party by December 2011.[22] On January 13, 2011, competing broadcaster Astral Media announced that they would seek legal action to stop the sale of these stations to Cogeco, citing the fact that it would own more stations than Astral in the Montreal market, making the competition unfair.[23]

On November 9, 2010, Hasbro Studios signed an agreement with Corus to broadcast their productions on its networks.[24] On March 26, 2012, Corus and Shaw launched ABC Spark, a localized version of U.S. cable network ABC Family, with Shaw owning 49%.[25][26]

Re-organization, Disney deal[edit]

In March 2013, as part of Bell Media's proposed acquisition of Astral Media, Corus reached a tentative deal to acquire Astral's stakes in Historia, Séries+, and the Teletoon networks, along with several radio stations, for $400.6 million. This aspect of the deal, intended to quell concerns from the CRTC regarding Bell's total market share after the merger, was approved by the Competition Bureau on March 18, 2013.[27][28] In an unrelated deal, Corus also announced that it would acquire Shaw Media's stakes in ABC Spark, Historia, and Séries+ in exchange for cash and its minority stake in Food Network Canada.[26] Corus indicated that these purchases were meant to help the company expand its television holdings in the competitive Quebec market. Corus also planned to open a new office in Montreal following the sale.[26]

On September 1, 2013, Corus reorganized into six divisions, Corus Radio, Corus Kids, Corus Women and Family, Corus Content Distribution and Pay TV, Corus Airtime Sales and Corus Média.[29] Corus Kids was, in turn, divided into two groups, the Teletoon Canada group (Teletoon, Teletoon Retro, and Cartoon Network Canada), and kids' specialty services (Nelvana, Nickelodeon Canada, YTV, and Treehouse). Corus Média holds the French language channels.[30]

On April 16, 2015, Corus Entertainment announced that it had reached an agreement with the Disney–ABC Television Group to acquire long-term, Canadian multi-platform rights to Disney Channel's programming library. Alongside the licensing deal, Corus announced that it would officially launch a Canadian version of Disney Channel on September 1, 2015.[31] A French version, Disney La Chaîne, was also launched.[32]

Acquisition of Shaw Media, wind-down of Movie Central[edit]

On November 20, 2015, Corus announced that it would exit the premium television industry to focus on its national specialty services. As a result, Corus will sell its rights to operate a premium television service in Western Canada to Bell Media for $211 million, resulting in the planned discontinuations of Movie Central and Encore Avenue in 2016, the expansion of The Movie Network into a national service, and Bell becoming the sole rightsholder of HBO programming in Canada.[33]

On January 13, 2016, Corus announced that it would "acquire" Shaw Media for $2.65 billion; the company consists of the assets of the former Canwest, including the over-the-air Global Television Network and other specialty channels. The purchase, which will primarily be used to fund Shaw Communications' purchase of wireless carrier Wind Mobile, will be paid with $1.85 billion in cash, and Shaw will take a 39% share of Corus stock. The sale will require shareholder and CRTC approval, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016. Corus CEO Doug Murphy described the purcase as a "transformational acquisition that redefines Corus and Canada's media landscape".[2]

The deal was approved by the CRTC on March 23, 2016. Acknowledging that Corus and Shaw share effective control via JR Shaw, the CRTC legally considers the transaction to be a corporate reorganization, and thus, it is not subject to the CRTC tangible benefits policy nor scrutiny surrounding concentration of media ownership.[34] The reorganization was completed on April 1, 2016. At the same time, multiple Shaw Media executives joined the company, including its former CEO Barbara Williams (who became the new executive VP and Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Corus Entertainment), and the company adopted a new logo.[35]

Corporate governance[edit]

The current Chief executive officer (CEO) of the company is Doug Murphy. As of 2003, the CEO post had been filled by John Cassaday.[36]

Sponsorships and industry partnerships[edit]

Corus is an industry sponsor of the University of Waterloo Stratford Campus;[37] Gary Maavara, Corus' General Counsel, sits on the Waterloo campus' advisory board.[38] The company also funds a couple of endowed chair positions, including Chair in Women in Management at the Ivey Business School (London, Ontario, Canada) beginning in 2003,[39] and a Chair in Communications Strategy at the Rotman School of Management (Toronto) beginning in 2002.[40]

Relationship with Shaw Communications[edit]

Corus Entertainment was formed from media assets that had been owned by Shaw Communications. Shaw and Corus are independent, publicly traded companies, but nonetheless, some reports indicate that the two companies continued to have a close relationship.[41] For several years, Corus managed advertising operations (such as TV listings channels) for Shaw's cable systems, although this operation has since been discontinued. Executives have also occasionally moved between the two companies, with former Corus Television president Paul Robertson joining Shaw to head Shaw Media (the former Canwest broadcasting operations) in 2010.[41]

Following Shaw's 2010 acquisition of Canwest's TV assets, the two companies incidentally became partners in certain channels including Dusk (later replaced by ABC Spark) and Food Network Canada; these partnerships were unwound in 2013 (Corus has since re-gained full control over the two channels due to its acquisition of Shaw Media).[42] Otherwise, there was no connection or common programming between Corus's conventional and specialty television operations and those of Shaw Media. For example, Corus owns three over-the-air TV stations which were longtime CBC affiliates, and which agreed in 2015 to switch to Bell Media's CTV network, despite Shaw owning the rival Global network at the time.[43]

Legally, the CRTC considers Corus Entertainment and Shaw Communications to be both effectively controlled by JR Shaw, and they are counted as a single entity in regards to certain policies and transactions.[34] The CRTC also considered Corus and Shaw to be the same in regards to the "Diversity of Voices" policy, and to rules requiring television providers to carry three channels owned by unaffiliated parties for each co-owned channel they offer: due to the effective control, Corus networks carried by Shaw television services are subject to this rule. Additionally, the CRTC considered Corus's "acquisition" of Shaw Media to be a corporate reorganization of JR Shaw's assets, and not an outright purchase.[34][44]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Company Profile for Corus Entertainment Inc (CJR)". Retrieved 2008-10-08. 
  2. ^ a b "Corus Entertainment acquires Shaw Media for $2.65-billion". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 13 January 2016. 
  3. ^ "Kids, Music and More". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  4. ^ a b "Canuck players plan splitting up of WIC". Variety. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  5. ^ "Corus lines up behind Canuck Shaw’s assets". Variety. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  6. ^ "Shaw Communications Aquire [sic] Power Broadcasting". CBC News. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  7. ^ "Corus to buy Nelvana for $540-million". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  8. ^ a b "Corus sells Family, buys femme web". Variety. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  9. ^ "Corus sells two radio stations". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  10. ^ "Corus, Astral get regulatory approval of Quebec radio station swap". CBC News. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  11. ^ "Astral, Corus swap Quebec radio stations". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  12. ^ "Astral and Corus swap Quebec radio stations". Broadcaster Magazine. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  13. ^ "Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2007-215". CRTC. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  14. ^ "Corus Entertainment To Sell Radio Station CHRC-AM To Québec City Business Consortium". Corus Entertainment. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  15. ^ "Cosmo comes to Canada via Corus". Variety. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  16. ^ "Corus buys CLT from CTVglobemedia". CBC News. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  17. ^ Staff (October 17, 2009). "Corus Entertainment Brings Nickelodeon North". Pediatrics Week (NewsRx). Retrieved 2015-07-04 – via HighBeam Research. 
  18. ^ "With $2-billion deal for CanWest, Shaw wins battle of media titans". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 12 March 2016. 
  19. ^ "Canada's Corus Entertainment sells all its stations in Quebec, including Montreal". Radio-Info.com. 30 April 2010. 
  20. ^ St. Petersburg Times, "Canada Report" column, May 9, 2010.
  21. ^ Corus sells Saguenay station to local buyers, The Wire Report, 25 June 2010
  22. ^ Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-942: "Transfer of effective control of various commercial radio programming undertakings from Corus Entertainment Inc. to Cogeco inc.", issued December 17, 2010.
  23. ^ Canadian Press, via Yahoo: "Cogeco says new radio stations to provide growth and expects deal to go through", January 13, 2011.
  24. ^ The Brewsters (November 16, 2010). "Hasbro Studios and Corus Entertainment's Kids Networks Reach Broad Animation and Live-Action Programming Agreement". Cartoon Brew. Retrieved June 5, 2011. 
  25. ^ Corus' ABC Spark to Launch March 26th, Broadcaster Magazine, 2012-01-05
  26. ^ a b c "Corus eyes aggressive TV expansion in Quebec". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 27 March 2013. 
  27. ^ "Bell moves closer to Astral with sale of TV assets". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 5 March 2013. 
  28. ^ "Competition Bureau clears Corus acquisition of Astral assets". Canadian Press. Retrieved 20 March 2013. 
  29. ^ Ng-See-Quan, Danielle (July 16, 2013). "Changes to Corus leadership, including Corus Kids". KidScreen (Brunico Communications Ltd.). Playback Online. Retrieved August 16, 2015. 
  30. ^ Dickson, Jeremy (February 10, 2014). "Corus unveils Teletoon integration plan". KidScreen (Brunico Communications Ltd.). Retrieved August 16, 2015. 
  31. ^ David Friend (April 16, 2015). "Corus gains Canadian rights to Disney Channel content". The Globe and Mail (The Globe and Mail Inc.). Canadian Press. Retrieved April 16, 2015. 
  32. ^ Padovano, Joanna (August 12, 2015). "Disney Channel Sets Premiere Date for Canada". World Screen (Toronto: WSN INC.). Retrieved August 16, 2015. 
  33. ^ "Bell buys HBO rights across Canada as Corus backs out of pay TV". Canadian Press. Retrieved 22 November 2015. 
  34. ^ a b c "Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2016-110". CRTC. Retrieved 23 March 2016. 
  35. ^ "Corus Entertainment Completes Acquisition of Shaw Media". Corus Entertainment. Retrieved 1 April 2016. 
  36. ^ Kelly, Brendan (July 25, 2003). "Canada's Corus sings as black ink returns". Variety. Retrieved 2015-07-04 – via Highbeam Research. 
  37. ^ "Industry Partnerships". University of Waterloo. Retrieved 24 April 2014. 
  38. ^ "Advisory Board profiles". University of Waterloo. Retrieved 24 August 2014. 
  39. ^ "Corus Entertainment Donates $2 Million to Establish Chair in Women in Management" (Press release). Ivey School of Business. April 25, 2003. Retrieved 2015-07-04 – via Ascribe Higher Education News Service via HighBeam Research. 
  40. ^ "Corus Entertainment Funds Chair in Communications Strategy, Women in Business Program at University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management" (Press release). Rotman School of Management. September 5, 2002. Retrieved 2015-07-04 – via Ascribe Higher Education News Service via HighBeam Research. 
  41. ^ a b Iain Marlow (2010-05-04). "Shaw taps Corus veteran for top TV job". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved 2010-10-28. 
  42. ^ "Press Release - Corus Entertainment Receives CRTC Approval on TELETOON Canada Inc., Historia and Séries+ Acquisitions". Corusent.com. Retrieved 2013-12-22. 
  43. ^ Corus Entertainment (2015-05-20). "Corus Entertainment's Eastern Ontario Television Channels Enter into a Program Supply Agreement with Bell Media to Broadcast CTV Programming". Retrieved 2015-05-20. 
  44. ^ Corus Entertainment. "CRTC Application 2012-0197-0 (.zip format)". Retrieved 2012-04-11. 

External links[edit]

Corus Entertainment
Broadcast television
Cable television/
specialty channels
English-language
Corus Média
(French-language)
Telelatino Network
(50.5%)
Terrestrial radio
(by call sign)
Other assets
Defunct/historical
brands and predecessors
Some of the assets listed above are majority-owned, wholly-owned, by Corus Entertainment, or are under license. Refer to full asset list for detailed information.
Corporate directors
Assets
Defunct/historical
brands and predecessors
1Non-voting interest; additionally the voting shares of both Shaw and Corus are controlled by the Shaw family. • 2Community channels owned by Shaw Cablesystems. • 3Joint venture with Rogers Communications.
Many of the assets listed above are only partially owned by Shaw. Refer to full asset list for detailed information.
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