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ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2010-825

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Route reference: 2010-551

Ottawa, 8 November 2010

The Accessible Channel Inc.
Across Canada

Application 2010-0555-4, received 1 April 2010
Public hearing in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
6 October 2010

VoicePrint – Acquisition of assets

1.      The Commission approves the application by The Accessible Channel Inc. (TAC) for authority to acquire the assets of the national, English-language audio programming undertaking known as VoicePrint from Accessible Media Inc. (AMI)[1] and for a new broadcasting licence to operate this undertaking under the same terms and conditions as those in effect under the current licence. The Commission also renews the broadcasting licence of VoicePrint from 1 September 2011 to 31 August 2013.

2.      The Commission received an intervention in support of this application.

3.      TAC and AMI are not-for-profit corporations without share capital, controlled by their respective board of directors. TAC is also the licensee of the national, English-language digital specialty described video programming undertaking known as The Accessible Channel.

4.      For administrative, operational and tax planning purposes, this transaction will be effected by the wind up of AMI into TAC to continue under the name Accessible Media Inc.

Term of licence

5.      The applicant had requested that the licence for VoicePrint be renewed for a seven-year period. However, at the time of application, the Commission had initiated a review of the criteria for assessing applications for mandatory distribution on digital basic service, which resulted in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2010-629, in which the Commission stated the following:

[…] the Commission has determined that existing services that have been granted mandatory distribution on the basic service pursuant to distribution orders issued under section 9(1)(h) of the [Broadcasting] Act will be required to justify such continued carriage status with reference to the new criteria as part of their licence renewal.

6.        In light of this, as VoicePrint has been granted mandatory carriage,[2] the licence for service was initially administratively renewed until 31 August 2011 in Broadcasting Decision 2010-562 so as to enable the licensee to address in its renewal application the criteria detailed in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2010-629.

7.        However, the Commission notes that TAC is already the licensee of The Accessible Channel, which has also been granted mandatory carriage[3] and whose licence expires 31 August 2013. In order to improve efficiency and to limit the administrative burden on TAC, the Commission considers that it would be appropriate to review both services in light of Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2010-629 on the same date.

8.        Accordingly, upon surrender of the current licence issued to Accessible Media Inc., the Commission will issue a new licence to The Accessible Channel Inc. under the same terms and conditions as those in effect under the current licence, except for the expiry date, which will be 31 August 2013.

9.      The Commission notes that upon closing of the transaction, The Accessible Channel Inc. will operate under the name of Accessible Media Inc.  Following reception of the corporate documents supporting the change of name, the Commission will amend the licence accordingly.

Secretary General

Related documents

*This decision is to be appended to the licence.

Footnotes

[1] Formerly The National Broadcast Reading Service Inc. (NBRS).

[2] See Decision 2000-380 (corrected by Decision 2000-380-1).

[3] See Decision 2007-246.

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