Corus Entertainment (CJR) is one of Canada's largest media and entertainment companies. Generally speaking, Corus operates two business segments. Radio (about 20% of operating profit) consists of 53 radio stations across Canada, covering a variety of music genres and station formats, making it the second largest radio operator in the country after Astral Media with about a 28% market share. The second segment is Television (80% of operating profits), which can be further broken down into specialty and premium television networks (channels) and content creation. On the channel side, Corus completely or partially owns some well-known networks such as TELETOON, YTV, W Network, Movie Central, and Encore Avenue. Corus also owns a handful of broadcast TV stations. On the content side, the most valuable subsidiary is Nelvana, which is responsible for some well-known children's properties that are distributed over kids' networks such as Nickelodeon and Disney Channel. Parents of preschoolers no doubt recognize some of Nelvana's roster, which includes The Backyardigans, Franklin, and Babar, among others. These content assets also allow Corus to run some small merchandising and publishing operations that are based upon them (like toys, clothing, books, etc.).

Historically, media businesses were great investments. There is only a limited band of broadcast frequencies, and in the past owning some of these represented a long-term competitive advantage. These advantages are all but gone in the current digital era. Terrestrial free radio has been a dying business, particularly with the advent of iPods and satellite radio. The same can be said of network television, which faces even more competition from cable, satellite, video-on-demand, DVDs (and now Blu-Ray), and the Internet. Also, since both of these business models rely primarily on advertising for revenues, they were subject to big sales losses during recessions, as advertising dollars are often the first place businesses in stress cut back spending. This part of Corus is not very attractive going forward.

On the other hand, both premium cable channels and content creation are excellent businesses even today. Cable and satellite has virtually saturated the North American market with its better reception, more channels, on-demand content, and now, high definition offerings. Specialty cable channels like Corus' YTV or W Network earn revenues both from carrier subscription fees (such as Comcast CMCSK) and advertisers - a dual channel of dollars less susceptible to cyclical ad spending patterns. Content is an even better business. Corus' focus is on children's content, which, as anyone with preschoolers knows, can be recycled over, and over, and over (and over) again to both the same and newer generations of little ones.