Corus Entertainment

Corus Entertainment's logo since April 1, 2016

Corus's headquarters, Corus Quay in Toronto, as seen from the CN Tower

**Corus Entertainment Inc.** is a Canadian multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate company headquartered at the Corus Quay in Toronto, Ontario. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries.

Corus has a large presence in Canadian broadcasting as owner of the national Global system (15 conventional stations), 39 radio stations, and a portfolio of 33 specialty television services. Corus' most popular specialty channels include the domestic Teletoon/Télétoon, YTV, Treehouse, W Network, Slice, and Showcase networks, and localized versions of Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, the Disney Branded Television channels (Disney Channel, Disney Junior, and Disney XD), Nickelodeon, Freeform (as ABC Spark), The History Channel, Food Network, HGTV, CMT, Lifetime, National Geographic, and Magnolia Network.

The second incarnation of Shaw's media division—formed from the properties of the bankrupt Canwest Global—was subsumed by Corus on April 1, 2016, giving it control of the over-the-air Global network and 19 additional specialty channels. In May 2019, Shaw announced that it would sell its shares in Corus for roughly $500 million.

## History

### Establishment

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 company which would be known as Corus Entertainment. The spin-out would leave Shaw as a "pure play" telecommunications company. The decision to spin out the properties was meant to comply with current Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) recommendations, which discouraged vertical integration by cable companies that also owned media properties. Corus would be a separate, publicly traded company, first listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange in September 1999, but it would still be primarily controlled by the Shaw family.

In September 1999, Corus acquired the broadcasting assets of the Power Corporation of Canada, which included four television stations and sixteen radio stations. One of these stations, CHAU-TV, was later re-sold to Télé Inter-Rives. 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!.

### Growth, acquisitions

In September 2000, after negotiations and rumoured 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 complement to its children's television networks, including YTV, Treehouse, and its stakes in Family and the Teletoon/Télétoon 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.

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, making it a sister channel to The Movie Network and giving them full ownership. Corus also sold its stake in the Western Canadian pay-per-view service Viewers Choice to Shaw Communications for $22.6 million, and acquired the Women's Television Network (WTN) from Shaw (which had bought its parent, Moffat Communications, for its cablesystem assets) for $132.6 million. In August 2002, Corus sold CKDO and CKGE-FM to Durham Radio.