Blue Ant Media is seeking an amendment to its various broadcast licences to reduce its programs of national interest (PNI) requirements in line with the relief granted to Corus Entertainment in May.

The media company has filed an application to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) seeking a reduction of its required PNI expenditure to 5% of its annual revenues from 13.5%.

The proposed change would impact Blue Ant’s seven linear channels: Cottage Life, Love Nature, Makeful, T + E, Smithsonian Channel, BBC Earth and BBC First.

In the filing, Blue Ant argued that its current PNI requirements place the company in a “tremendous and existential competitive disadvantage” from foreign streamers.

“Due to our PNI requirements we are simply unable to create the right mix of content,” read the filing. “This impacts not only our Canadian broadcast revenue, which is directly tied to our ratings, but also our ability to monetize the content we commission with global audiences through our global channels and distribution sales.”

Blue Ant stated that since its programming does not typically air drama, kids or variety programming, its channels run “a disproportionate amount of documentary programming.” This restricts its ability to program lifestyle and reality series that more align with audience demand, the company argued.

The filing was published on the CRTC website on Thursday (July 18) and is open for comments until Aug. 19.

Blue Ant channels were among the hundreds of services to receive an administrative renewal of their broadcast licences until Aug. 31, 2026. The licences were previously set to expire on Aug. 31, 2023, which would have opened the door for a review and potential amendments to Blue Ant’s conditions of licence, including PNI.

The CRTC said at the time that it extended the licences to give itself more time to implement a modernized framework for the broadcasting system following the passage of Bill C-11. The Commission is currently in phase two of a three-part approach.

Bell Media, Corus Entertainment and Rogers Sports & Media all filed Part 1 applications for regulatory relief in response to the renewals. The CRTC suspended the applications from Bell Media and Rogers, stating that their requests will be considered as part of the ongoing modernization process.

However, the CRTC agreed to review – and eventually grant – Corus’s request to reduce its PNI requirements to 5% from 8.5%, due to the company’s unique financial circumstances. Following the decision, the Canadian Media Producers Association filed an application for a judicial review of the decision on the basis that Corus has previously failed to meet its spending requirements for Canadian content.

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