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Decision
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Ottawa, 11 April 1985
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Decision CRTC 85-161
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CFPL Broadcasting Limited
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London, Ontario - 842217200
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Following a Public Hearing in Windsor on 12 February 1985, the Commission approves the application by CFPL Broadcasting Limited for a broadcasting licence for an English-language television network consisting of CFPL-TV London and CKNX-TV Wingham for the purpose of providing a microwave feed to distribute programs from London to Wingham for broadcast on CKNX-TV. This represents no change in the programming available to Wingham viewers, but is an improvement over the present practice of sending program by video-tape.
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The Commission will issue a network licence expiring 30 September 1989, subject to the conditions of licence specified in the licence to be issued.
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The shares of the licensee are owned by London Free Press Holdings Limited (LFP). LFP also owns 100% of the shares of the London Free Press Printing Company Limited which is the publisher of the "London Free Press", a daily newspaper published in London. In view of these facts, the Commission examined the application in the light of the Direction to the CRTC on Issue and Renewal of Broadcasting Licences to Daily Newspaper Proprietors (the Direction) dated 29 July 1982.
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The Direction stipulates in sections 3 and 4 that the Commission may not issue or renew broadcasting licences to applicants who, in the opinion of the Commission, are effectively owned and controlled, directly or indirectly, by the proprietor of a daily newspaper, where the major circulation area of the daily newspaper substantially encompasses the major market area served or to be served by the broadcasting undertaking. Notwithstanding the above, section 5 of the Direction allows the Commission to grant a licence or renewal thereof, on an exceptional basis, where it is satisfied that refusal to do so "would be contrary to overriding public interest considerations taking into consideration all relevant factors including consequences that would adversely affect service to the public or create exceptional or unreasonable hardship to the applicant and the level of existing competition in the area served or to be served under the broadcasting licence..."
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In Decision CRTC 84-603, which dealt with an application for the renewal of the licence issued to CFPL Broadcasting Limited for CFPL-TV, the Commission determined that the applicant fell within the proscribed class of applicants described in section 4 of the Direction on the basis of its finding that the major circulation area of the London Free Press substantially encompassed the major market area of CFPL-TV. The licence was renewed, however, on the grounds that failure to renew would have been contrary to the overriding public interest considerations set out in the decision.
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In the present case, the major market area to be served by the proposed network includes the combined coverage area of CFPL-TV London and CKNX-TV Wingham. Based on the evidence before it, the Commission considers that there is no significant difference between the substantial encompassment that was found to exist with respect to CFPL-TV in Decision CRTC 84-603, and the extent to which the major circulation area of the London newspaper will encompass the major market area of the proposed network. Thus, it is the Commission's opinion that the network applicant falls within the proscribed class of applicants described in section 4 of the Direction.
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In deciding to issue this network licence, the Commission has taken into account the fact that the network's sole purpose is to improve the quality of service provided to Wingham viewers and will not result in any programming changes as far as these viewers are concerned. Accordingly, and for the same reasons set out in Decision CRTC 84-603, the Commission is satisfied that failure to grant a licence for this network would be contrary to overriding public interest considerations.
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Fernand Bélisle Secretary General
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