{"id":761988,"date":"2026-06-26T07:24:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/761988\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T07:24:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T07:24:09","slug":"quebecor-files-application-to-block-proposed-debt-restructuring-at-corus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/761988\/","title":{"rendered":"Quebecor files application to block proposed debt restructuring at Corus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre Karl P\u00e9ladeau said in an e-mail Thursday that handing Corus to its creditors would weaken the Canadian media industry and leave Bell Media parent BCE Inc,. owner of the CTV network, as the dominant player.DARRYL DYCK\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Quebecor Inc.<\/a> is attempting to block the planned financial restructuring of Corus Entertainment Inc.<\/a> by taking part in the federal government\u2019s review of the transaction, after being repeatedly rebuffed in its attempts to acquire the TV and radio broadcaster. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Montreal-based Quebecor asked the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for intervenor status in hearings on Corus\u2019s proposal to give control of the company to creditors as part of a $500-million debt-for-equity swap<\/a> announced in November. <\/p>\n

Quebecor made it clear to the CRTC that it wants to acquire the debt-heavy company. <\/p>\n

The CRTC was not immediately available to comment. <\/p>\n

Minority shareholders in Corus have also urged the CRTC to reject the restructuring. Toronto-based Corus owns the Global Television Network, specialty TV channels and 36 radio stations. <\/p>\n

Quebecor, a dominant media platform in its home province, has been stalking Corus<\/a> for two years, but has been unable to strike a deal acceptable to the company\u2019s lenders. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre Karl P\u00e9ladeau said in an e-mail that handing Corus to its creditors would weaken the Canadian media industry and leave Bell Media parent BCE Inc,. owner of the CTV network, as the dominant player. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn our view, Corus\u2019s long-term viability must be achieved through a takeover by strong players with audiovisual industry expertise and a long-term strategic vision, not by creditors converted into shareholders,\u201c Mr. P\u00e9ladeau said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCorus\u2019s assets represent an essential national infrastructure for Canada and its culture,\u201d Mr. P\u00e9ladeau said. \u201cWithout a strong presence in this space, Bell would monopolize the English-language media landscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Quebecor acquired Corus, Mr. P\u00e9ladeau said the companies would combine their production facilities \u201cto create more high-quality Canadian content.\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cOur consolidated purchasing power would also allow us to negotiate programming rights for foreign content acquisition under more favourable terms,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The proposed Corus restructuring would hand control to a group of credit funds led by Toronto-based Canso Investment Counsel Ltd. <\/p>\n

In a court filing, Quebecor said: \u201cCanso has no particular experience or expertise in the broadcasting sector. More importantly, Canso\u2019s track record in the print media sector is, to say the least, troubling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Canso played a significant role in the restructurings of Postmedia Network Canada Corp. \u201cwhere its involvement resulted in major cuts and persistent structural difficulties,\u201d Quebecor said.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, executives at Corus and Canso could not be reached for comment. <\/p>\n

In Quebec, Quebecor has a market-leading media platform, with its flagship TVA network closely integrated with radio and print properties. <\/p>\n

Last year, Quebecor\u2019s media, sports and entertainment business had revenues of $958-million and earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA, of $93-million. Quebecor is also a major national cell phone provider and regional cable company, with a $15-billion market capitalization overall. <\/p>\n

Corus has struggled to pay down debt taken on in 2016 to acquire Global and other media assets from former parent Shaw Communications. In 2025, the company had $1.1-billion in revenue and lost $328-million.<\/p>\n

Corus has had difficulty getting its restructuring approved by shareholders prior to seeking CRTC approval for the plan. In February, the company had to ask the courts<\/a> to endorse the transaction after failing to win support from two-thirds of Corus class B shareholders. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Quebecor chief executive officer Pierre Karl P\u00e9ladeau said in an e-mail Thursday that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,348,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-761988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-tv","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}