ARCHIVED - Letter
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File No.: 8622-A124-201304907
By e-mail
Dany Meloul
Vice-President, Legal and Regulatory Affairs
and Affiliate Affairs
Les Chaînes Télé Astral
2100 St-Catherine Street West
Office 700
Montreal, Quebec H3H 2T3
dmeloul@astral.com
Louma Haffar
Senior Advisor, Regulatory Affairs - Broadcasting
Québecor Média Inc.
612 Saint-Jacques Street, Montreal, Quebec H3C 4M8
louma.haffar@quebecor.com
Dear Mesdames:
Re: Final offer arbitration between Astral Inc. and Vidéotron s.e.n.c. – Astral’s request for disclosure of information
On 5 June 2013, the Commission received a letter from Astral Média Inc. (Astral), in which it requested that the Commission require Vidéotron s.e.n.c. (Vidéotron) to submit an unredacted version of the expert report prepared by Nordicity entitled Signal Valuation: Astral’s French-language Specialty Channels (the Report), which was filed as part of the above-mentioned proceeding.
Astral stated that the Report is the foundation for Vidéotron’s justification of the royalties proposed in its final offer. According to Astral, it is therefore important that it be aware of the supporting evidence to which it must respond.
If the request is denied, Astral considers that the Report should be removed from the record.
In a letter dated 6 June 2013, Vidéotron opposed Astral’s request for the disclosure of confidential information contained in the Report in Appendix F1 of its submission. Vidéotron stated that the redacted sections of the Report focus on the tariffs or performance of television channels that are competitive with Astral. The confidentiality agreements that Vidéotron has concluded with the other broadcasters prevent it from authorizing the disclosure of this information. In addition, disclosure would incur significant financial losses for Vidéotron, as well as damaging its competitiveness and potentially hindering ongoing negotiations. Vidéotron asked the Commission to not remove the Report from the record, because the document could help the Commission understand its position.
Decision on the aforementioned issue
In light of the above, and after weighing interest in disclosure against potential damage to Vidéotron, Staff concludes the following:
• Everything except for the numbers in the redacted paragraphs on pages 18 and 24 must be disclosed to Astral;
• Titles and headings of all tables (tables 10 and 12 and those in Appendix 1) must be disclosed to Astral;
• The names of programming services set out in the tables on pages 19, 23 and 26, and in Appendix 1, must be disclosed to Astral;
• The averages set out in the tables on page 19 and in Appendix 1 must be disclosed to Astral;
• The numbers concerning Astral’s services involved in this proceeding, set out in the tables on pages 23 and 26 and in Appendix 1, must be disclosed to Astral;
• Everything except for the percentages set out in table 12 on pages 20 and 21 regarding Astral’s programming services must be disclosed to Astral;
• All other information will remain confidential.
Vidéotron is asked to provide to Astral and to the Commission a new version of the “ASTRAL Abridged Version” Report by noon on 7 June 2013.
Sincerely yours,
Claude Brault
Senior Analyst
Television Policy and Applications, Broadcasting
c.c.: Johanne Saint-Laurent, Les Chaînes Télé Astral
Nathalie Dorval, Astral Media Inc.
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