Bill on junk food ads for kids could do ‘significant damage’: Corus

Proposed legislation intended to combat the marketing of unhealthy food and drink to children will have an adverse effect on broadcasters due to a loss of much-needed advertising revenue at a critical time for traditional TV, broadcaster Corus Entertainment Inc. is arguing. The Child Health Protection Act, known as Bill S-228, intends to tackle childhood obesity by targeting ads with products that include ingredients like high sugar, sodium and saturated fats. It was first introduced in the Senate in September 2016, passed by the upper chamber a year later and last month was opened for a second reading in the House of Commons. “Taking action today to restrict the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages means that we can help children have a healthy start in life, based on a foundation of healthy eating choices, and protection from the influence and manipulation of those who would market unhealthy foods and beverages to our children,” bill sponsor and Liberal MP Doug Eyolfson said during a House debate last month. “Bill S-228 serves to provide such protection.” The legislation, as passed by the Senate, would regulate that kind of marketing to individuals under the age of 17. It includes a proposed provision that would ban advertising of “unhealthy food in a manner that is directed primarily at children.” However, Eyolfson indicated that he would be introducing amendments, including changing the definition of children from those under 17 to those under 13, with the new definition subject to a mandatory review in five years. But in trying to protect kids, the bill would unintentionally hurt broadcasters, Corus told The Wire Report in an email this week. “In an already challenging television advertising revenue market, the loss of this revenue stream would do significant damage to broadcasters at the worst possible time,” the emailed statement said. The company statement said the combination of the bill and a separate Health Canada proposal would prohibit the broadcast of “virtually all food and beverage advertising” at certain times, including between 6 and 9 a.m. and 3 and 9 p.m. on weekdays, and between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends. Those restrictions, it said, would not be limited to children’s programming or channels, but would apply to all programs. Earlier this month, for its fiscal first quarter of 2018, Corus reported a four per cent dip in ad revenues compared to a year earlier. Desjardins Capital Markets analyst Maher Yaghi said the results were disappointing and “point to a deteriorating advertising market beyond what we had seen in recent quarterly results.” Corus is particularly vulnerable to the bill due its strong focus on the family and kids segment. Its channels include YTV, Teletoon, Treehouse, Nickelodeon, the Cartoon Network and Disney channels, whileiIts Nelvana studio is also a producer and distributor of kids' animation. The company’s view on the bill hasn’t deviated from when it appeared before the senate standing committee on social affairs, science and technology last June. It said that the bill would “significantly impact revenue” for its kids’ channels and slash jobs, “while we are facing competitive challenges from unregulated media sources,” according to a transcript. “Threatening those channels will only drive more kids onto the unfiltered Internet,” it added. Corus registered to lobby the government on the issue throughout 2017, according to the federal lobbyist registry. It communicated with officials including the bill’s original sponsor, Conservative senator Nancy Greene Raine, and other senators, as well as Brian Kauffman, senior policy advisor to the minister of health and the department’s director parliamentary affairs, Peter Cleary. Scott Henderson, spokesman for BCE Inc.’s media division, said in an emailed statement that the company is “aligned with other Canadian broadcasters in opposition to this Bill.” And while it fully supports “targeted initiatives to improve children’s health and to combat childhood obesity,” the proposal is “overreaching and will hurt broadcasters and advertisers” and will not solve the problem. Al Dark, senior vice-president of sales for Rogers Communications Inc.'s Rogers Media Sales, said in an emailed statement that the company is "extremely concerned with the approach that has been taken in B S-228 and hope the Government is open to working with the industry on how best to implement this important piece of legislation." "As it stands now, we believe it is far too reaching and, if adopted, will have unintended consequences that risk taking close to $200M in advertising revenue out of the TV sector at a time when it is already facing considerable financial challenges," Dark said. But support for restricting advertising to children was reinforced in the form of a Health Canada consultation report, published last month, that sought comment from the public, health organizations, industry and other stakeholders. “Most expressed agreement regarding the impact of marketing on children and a desire to lessen their exposure to advertisements of unhealthy products,” the report, using data collected by Ipsos Reid, said. The consultation saw 1,146 individual contributions and was held between June 10th and August 14th last year. It also put forth the idea that unhealthy food and beverage marketing shouldn't be available “on websites, platforms, and apps that are popular with children, even when these digital channels are intended for adults.” But Corus argued in June that online advertising is “incredibly difficult to police.” It also pointed to existing regulations, including the Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children, which CRTC mandates that broadcasters must follow. Corus said it supports the government’s goal of tackling obesity, and that since 2004, it has spent $15 million worth of advertising time to healthy, active living initiatives for kids and families and has reduced the number of food and beverage ads on kids' channels over the last 10 years. And it said it heavily filters ads that it runs. But it added that obesity is a complex problem, and restricting advertising won’t solve the problem. Instead, Corus said in the emailed statement that it supports an alternative fix previously proposed by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. “Rather than through legislation, the CAB proposes working within an established CRTC regulatory framework for identifying children’s television programming, and limiting unhealthy food and beverage advertising during those programs. We believe that this more targeted approach would prove more accurate and be more straightforward to administer,” the statement read. Rogers also said in its emailed statement that it supports a "more targeted approach, like the one proposed by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters, that zeros in on programs marketed exclusively to children." Corus said in its emailed statement that it “cares deeply about Canadian children, and would like to work with the government to strengthen the safeguards relating to children’s advertising and programming.” It added that "we believe that all parties must work together to get this right.” CORRECTION: A previous version of this story quoted Corus as saying that due to new government rules, virtually all food ads would be prohibited between 6 and 9 a.m. on weekends. That time frame is between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Bill on junk food ads for kids could do ‘significant damage’: Corus

News | January 24, 2018

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Bill on junk food ads for kids could do ‘significant damage’: Corus

News | January 24, 2018

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