Ottawa’s $600 Million Media Plan Includes Funding Open to Global News

Ottawa has laid out where its $600 million in media and cultural funding will go, and some of it could reach established broadcasters. The package includes $80 million for a local television news fund that already counts Corus’s Global stations among its eligible recipients.

The government outlined the funding in a press release issued Sunday, November 8, with Heritage Minister Marc Miller announcing the breakdown for the 2026-27 fiscal year. It follows the government’s June decision to put public money into Canadian programming while changing its approach to streaming regulation.

Where the $600 million is going

The allocations cover television, film, music and other programming, alongside news:

• Canada Media Fund: $213.4 million.
• Independent Local News Fund: $80 million.
• Telefilm Canada: $68.5 million.
• Canada Music Fund: $67 million.
• Indigenous Screen Office: $51 million.
• Certified independent production funds: $44 million.
• Services of exceptional importance: $42.1 million.
• Commercial Radio News Fund: $11.5 million.
• Northern Aboriginal Broadcasting: $10 million.
• Community Radio Fund: $7.5 million.
• Canada History Fund: Up to $5 million.

The $42.1 million public-service component names CPAC, APTN and TV5 Québec Canada as examples of services it will support, without specifying individual amounts.

How existing media companies could benefit

Corus is the clearest major broadcaster with a route to the local-TV funding. The CRTC added its 15 Global stations to the Independent Local News Fund’s eligible recipients in June 2025.

The regulator treats Corus as an independent broadcaster following the Rogers-Shaw transaction. Here, “independent” refers to its separation from cable and satellite distributors, rather than the size of its newsroom or television network.

The CRTC also imposed a 45% cap on funding for any one ownership group. That limits what a group can receive, but does not establish Corus’s share of this new federal allocation. Corus has continued cutting jobs across its news operations.

Bell Fund, Telus Fund, Quebecor Fund and Shaw Rocket Fund are also named in the production-fund component. These are funding organizations, and their inclusion does not establish payments to the companies whose names they carry.

Bell Fund, for example, operates at arm’s length from Bell TV and supports independent producers. Ottawa has not provided individual allocations for those funds.

Large radio owners could also benefit through qualifying stations. The commercial-radio fund’s existing rules cover news-producing commercial stations outside Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa-Gatineau, with additional eligibility conditions and a 12% ownership-group cap.

This package is separate from the proposed journalism tax-credit expansion that could benefit Rogers, Bell and Quebecor newsrooms in Budget 2026.

Sunday’s announcement does not specify company-by-company payments to those businesses or Corus. The government says participating organizations will release more details, while the Canada Media Fund says it will work with Canadian Heritage and the industry to determine how its allocation is spent.

The broader spending shift has drawn criticism from University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist. In a November 6 post on X, before Sunday’s breakdown, Geist said Budget 2026 had “taxpayers footing the bill” instead of large technology platforms.

His roughly $1.5 billion figure covers several cultural and news measures, including the $600 million allocation, journalism tax credits and CBC support. It is not a tally of payments to media companies under this $600 million package.

What do you think about taxpayer funding for local news at established broadcasters like Global?