The CRTC has published a decision that will allow independent Canadian television stations to access more funding from the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF), including making Corus Entertainment’s Global News stations eligible.
Administered by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB), the ILNF is funded by licensed terrestrial and direct-to-home broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDUs), which contribute 0.3% of their previous year’s broadcast revenues. All traditional private television stations offering locally reflective news and information, and not belonging to a vertically integrated group, are eligible to receive ILNF funding. Currently, 19 television stations owned by nine different independent ownership groups are recipients.
Established in 2016 with a goal to encourage broadcasters to spend on and produce more news, contributions by BDUs to the ILNF have decreased over time, due to an overall downturn in revenue. With base contributions from online streaming services now set to significantly increase the amount of money being distributed by the ILNF, the commission launched a consultation last year as part ongoing efforts to modernize its broadcasting framework.
Based on those consultations, the CRTC has decided to maintain current ILNF eligibility criteria, but is adding Corus’s television stations to the list of those eligible. It will also now require ILNF recipients to make local news and information content available online and implement an incentive for original audiovisual online content reflecting equity-deserving, Indigenous, and official language minority communities.
New reporting requirements will also be introduced related to news expenditures to assess whether the ILNF is meeting its objectives. The CAB’s annual report must now include the previous year’s locally reflective news and information expenditures and hours (in aggregate), in addition to the currently reported average over the previous three years. That information and ILNF recipients’ journalist FTE data will be publicly released.
The commission has determined that online streaming services should support a separate local news fund for radio, which will be the subject of its own consultation and forthcoming decision.
Canadian Association of Broadcasters President Kevin Desjardins said the decision will provide greater certainty for its members going forward.
“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,” Desjardins told Broadcast Dialogue.
A Corus spokesperson said it’s now confirming when ILNF monies might start flowing to its news operations.
“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,” the spokesperson stated. “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.”
