Corus strikes defiant note ahead of Netflix ad tier launch in Canada

Leading Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment is the latest to see its revenues dented by the current economic downturn. For Q4 2022, the company saw a 6% decrease in revenues – compared to a 4% increase across the full year.

Doug Murphy

“In Q4 we experienced meaningfully lower results given the impacts of an uncertain economic environment on advertising demand,” said Doug Murphy, president and CEO, Corus Entertainment. “Despite these cross-currents in the ad market, our portfolio of businesses is delivering impressive subscriber revenue growth and increased content sales. In addition, the expansion of our premium digital video business, with STACKTV, TELETOON+, the Global TV App and the upcoming launch of Pluto TV, underscores our progress in maximising multi-platform TV opportunities.”

Corus’ ad revenue base could come under further pressure next week with the launch of Netflix’s new ad-funded tier. But Murphy is not unduly concerned. In an investor call to discuss the Q4 results, he said that Netflix has “no ability to do advertiser integrations. They have no end-to-end sales functions or sales capabilities.”

Aside from Corus’s well-established ad sales infrastructure, Murphy can also take comfort from Corus’s growing suite of SVOD and AVOD streaming offerings. SVOD service StackTV licenses content from Disney while recently launched kids and family streaming service Teletoon+ is available to subscribers through platforms including Amazon Prime. Paramount-backed Pluto TV is coming to Corus in December and will launch with more than 100 live channels and over 20,000 hours of content.

Corus has a large presence in Canadian broadcasting as owner of the national Global network and 33 speciality TV services. Protection by domestic ownership regulations means it operates services from several Hollywood studios under licence.