ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 98-162

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Decision

Ottawa, 5 June 1998

Decision CRTC 98-162

MusiquePlus inc.

Across Canada - 199800660

Licence amendment for Musimax

1. Following Public Notice CRTC 1998-13 dated 13 February 1998, the Commission approves the application by MusiquePlus inc. to amend the licence of the national specialty television programming undertaking Musimax, by adding a condition of licence providing a definition of the terms "broadcast day" and "broadcast week" and deleting the definitions found in the appendix to Decision CRTC 96-614. The new condition of licence will read as follows:

14. For the purposes of these conditions the following definitions apply:

"broadcast day" means a 24 hour period beginning at 00:00:01 hour; and

"broadcast week" means seven consecutive broadcast days beginning on a Friday.

2. The Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle de la vidéo (ADISQ) submitted an intervention, opposing in particular the proposed amendment to the definition of "broadcast day". ADISQ expressed concern that the amendment would have a negative impact on the level of Canadian content broadcast by the station and, more notably on the exposure given Canadian and French-language video clips during the day.

3. In response to ADISQ's intervention, the licensee stated that the proposed amendment results from the method used by MusiMax to schedule video clips. Noting that the Commission has approved similar applications by the specialty music services MuchMusic and MusiquePlus (Decisions CRTC 90-667 and 91-366), the licensee stated that the current application is consistent with the rationale used in those cases and seeks to achieve the same results.

4. In the Commission's view, the proposed definition of "broadcast day" will effectively facilitate the scheduling of MusiMax's broadcasting cycles. The Commission also notes that, under the new definition of "broadcast day", the minimal requirement for Canadian content will increase by 3 hours and 37 minutes (from 60% of 18 hours to 60% of 24 hours).

5. The Commission considers that the approval granted herein should not have a negative impact on the showcasing of Canadian content and French-language programming. In this regard, the Commission reminds the licensee that it must continue to abide by its conditions of licence 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Moreover, the Commission expects the licensee to schedule Canadian and French-language video clips throughout the day in a manner that will allow it to reach the most listeners.

6. In approving the proposed amendments, the Commission has taken into account the particular circumstances of this case, especially those that relate to a music specialty service.

This decision is to be appended to the licence.

Laura M. Talbot-Allan
Secretary General

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