OSLO, Norway and TORONTO, Canada—Canadian broadcaster Corus Entertainment has partnered with Appear Appear, a global provider of live production technology, to modernize Corus’ news contribution architecture, replacing legacy leased circuits with an IP-based approach, using SRT as the primary transport protocol across the network’s affiliates, news bureaus and operational hubs.
The transition reflects the changing realities of broadcast environments in North America, including more live output, locations, as well as greater pressure to operate efficiently while maintaining the reliability required for news production, the companies said.
“Moving away from a reliance on leased circuits and bringing greater capability in-house was central to how we approached this transition,” said Drew Kikauka, Senior Director, Enterprise Architecture and Broadcast Engineering , Corus Entertainment. “Appear gives us greater control and has unlocked meaningful efficiency gains, while enabling a consistent, scalable IP-first contribution model across Canada.”
Corus’ transformation centers on shifting from leased circuits to IP, using the SRT protocol to enable secure, stable media transport for this always-on news environment. To ensure continuity across this transition, Corus required support for legacy interfaces such as ASI at key headend locations alongside IP workflows, enabling a practical hybrid operating model as facilities and endpoints transition at different times.
Corus is using Appear’s X Platform, a high-capacity, ultra-dense, low-latency media processing and gateway platform, to consolidate key functions into a more streamlined nationwide workflow. This reduces complexity and helps engineering teams maintain a robust operating model across a distributed footprint.
To support day-to-day operations at scale, the deployment includes an orchestration layer built around Skyline Dataminer, with Toronto-based partner Rocket delivering custom UI and application-layer tools for scheduling and operator control. The architecture also supports ground-to-cloud contribution, enabling more flexible, cloud-connected news production workflows.
“Corus has taken a decisive step that many broadcasters are now prioritising, replacing a reliance on leased circuits with an IP-first architecture engineered for resilience,” said Ed McGivern, President and General Manager, Appear US. “By consolidating functionality and increasing consistency across a nationwide footprint, it shows how a more streamlined contribution model can deliver both robustness and efficiency without adding operational burden.”
Based in Toronto, Corus Entertainment owns Global Television Network as well as specialty cable channels. radio stations and is also involved in publishing and streaming.
