CRTC finds Global channels eligible for Independent Local News Fund

The CRTC issued a new framework for the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF) on Monday, June 9. The ruling was contentious, with three commissioners attaching dissenting opinions to the main decision. The 29-page decision was the culmination of a nearly year-long procedure whereby the commission looked at revising the terms and conditions of the ILNF. Comments were received from stakeholders across the spectrum. In its Monday ruling, the regulator added Corus Entertainment Inc.’s TV stations to the list of those eligible for funding from the ILNF. News programming must be available online as well, the commission ruled. Current eligibility criteria and the allocation method are being maintained. Under the established rules, two-thirds of money is distributed in proportion to how much each channel spends on local news and information. The remaining third is distributed in proportion to the number of hours of news and information programming averaged over the previous three years. The CRTC will implement an incentive for original audiovisual online content expenditures reflecting equity-seeking groups, Indigenous groups and official language minority groups. “The commission notes the importance of ensuring underserved communities benefit from funding,” the decision read. “However, the commission considers that it would be appropriate to implement an additional incentive for ILNF recipients to produce content specifically serving and reflective of equity-deserving communities, Indigenous communities, and official language minority communities (OLMCs), and to meet the objectives set out in the Act related to diversity, inclusion, and accessibility. Fund recipients and the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, which administers the ILNF, will have new reporting standards imposed upon them. The fund was worth $16 million in 2023-24, the commission stated. Currently, broadcast distribution undertakings (BDUs) contribute 0.3 per cent of the previous year’s revenues to the ILNF. All traditional private TV stations which show local news and information, and which are not members of a vertically integrated group, can receive money from the fund. There are currently 19 stations on the list. This will grow when Corus’s 15 Global TV channels are added to the mix. Corus became eligible for the money when Shaw Communications was sold to Rogers Communications Inc. and Corus was spun off as a separate company with no vertical connection to Rogers. Previously Global stations were ineligible for ILNF funds To ensure Global does not take the lion’s share of the money, an entity cap of 45 per cent is being imposed. No company that owns several stations can receive more than 45 per cent of the available money. The CAB will have to file more detailed reports under the new regime than it currently does. As of now it files a three-year average of news expenditures and hours of programming. In the future it will have to add annual numbers. Channels must tell the CAB and the CRTC how many full time equivalent journalists they have employed. The new rules come into effect immediately and payments to the CAB designated for the ILNF are due Aug. 31. This will finance the fund so it can start disbursing money to the 34 stations. Corus is examining the decision. “As Canada’s largest independent news provider, we are pleased to receive confirmation from the CRTC of our position, which has been that we have been eligible for the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF) for some time,” a company spokesperson wrote to The Wire Report. “We are in the process of working through the details and confirming the timing of receipt of our funds with respect to our 2025 financial year.” The CAB was delighted with the ruling. “The CAB was pleased to see the decision on the ILNF issued so that our members have greater certainty on the fund going forward,” president Kevin Desjardins emailed The Wire Report. “As the administrator of the ILNF, the CAB is currently working through the decision to ensure that we have full clarity on how some of the changes to the fund will be operationalized.” Three commissioners dissent Bram Abramson, CRTC commissioner for Ontario, does not like the entity cap provisions of the decision. In his dissent, he offers a plan that would see diminishing cap allotments for stations with common ownership. “I would have taken a different approach than the majority in this regard,” he wrote. “In my view, both horizontal concentration, and existing supply within a community, ought to be factored into the funding formula.” Quebec commissioner Stéphanie Paquette had two complaints with the decision. She says expanding the number of stations eligible from 19 to 34 will disproportionately affect French-language channels. General interest networks will not be considered when assessing the regulatory framework. “Although we have announced, as a commission, our intention to examine the issue of news production and funding more broadly in 2025-2026, through the various upcoming consultations, I feel that we should have broadened the scope of the fund as soon as possible in the current context that is affecting all Canadian media,” she stated. The commissioner for the Atlantic region and Nunavut, Ellen Desmond, based her dissent on eligibility criteria. She would have broadened the rules to allow independent news sources to access the fund. “There are several independent community channels operating in Canada, some of which are now filling a gap by providing local news and programming where it is not otherwise available,” she argued. ppark@thewirereport.ca

CRTC finds Global channels eligible for Independent Local News Fund

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By Paul Park
| June 9, 2025

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CRTC finds Global channels eligible for Independent Local News Fund

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