Size matters, by allowing diversified Canadian media groups to step up and compete in a global market, Corus Entertainment CEO John Cassaday told the CRTC on Monday.

“As platforms become more fragmented and rights more complex, we need to have players in the Canadian system who can amass the resources to buy and to produce the programs that Canadians want and will pay for,” he told the CRTC as its public hearing into the impact of vertical integration on the Canadian broadcasting system continued.

Cassaday argued vertical integration benefits Canadian broadcasters by giving them much-needed scale to compete in a rapidly emerging global new media market.

“We have a more diverse system than ever in our history, as the Ottawa market illustrates,” he said, in reference to the local TV market. “In our view, the ‘vertical’ aspect is less important than the need for strong players.”

The Corus head also weighed in on exclusive content deals, a major talking point by the industry players at the CRTC hearing.

Cassaday recommended that traditional linear TV content should be made available to all market players, including mobile carriers, but noted an exception: “Where the content is new, different, or served up in an on-demand form, the new platform should be able to acquire exclusive rights,” he said.

That exclusivity, Cassaday argued, was required as an incentive to new platform operators to acquire or to create new content.

“It also avoids the problem of whether the [CRTC] has the legal right to determine how copyrights or new platforms should be regulated,” he insisted.