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Ottawa, 14 March 2014

By email

Our. Ref : 2014-0128-1

Ms. Claire Dion,
Executive Director, Bell
4200, Saint-Laurent Blvd.
Suite 503
Montréal (Québec)
H2W 2R2

(cdion@ipf.ca)

Re : Complaint by Québecor Média inc. on behalf of TVA Group Inc. against Bell Broadcasting and New Media Fund (2014-0128-1)

Dear Ms. Dion :

The Commission received a complaint by Québecor Média inc. (Québecor) on behalf of TVA Group Inc. (TVA) against Bell Broadcasting and New Media Fund (Bell Fund). This application was published on the Commission’s website on 17 February 2014 under Part 1 of the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure.

In its complaint, Québecor states that the decisions made by Bell Fund’s board of directors regarding three projects submitted in 2013 were not taken objectively and are discriminatory against TVA.

In order to complete the record, please answer the following questions:

1) Québecor requests that the Commission determine that Bell Fund’s board of directors’ behaviour is in non-compliance with the principles established in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-833 (RP 2010-833), requiring independent production funds boards of directors to adopt an effective and efficient process to ensure that applications for funding of productions are appraised objectively.

a) What process has Bell Fund established to appraise submitted applications?

b) Demonstrate how Bell Fund is in compliance with the principles set out in RP 2010-833, in order to ensure that submitted applications for production funds are appraised objectively?

2) How many TVA Group applications were received by the Bell Fund since its creation?

a) How many were approved by the Fund?

b) How many were denied and why?

c) TVA Group states that the three projects it has submitted were denied funding by the Bell Fund, despite the fact that they were in compliance with Bell Fund’s eligibility criteria. For each of these projects (Prise 2, La Voix 2 and Toute la vérité), explain how they did not meet the criteria established by the Fund.

Bell Fund is to submit electronically, via the secured service My CRTC Account (Partner Log In or GCKey), its response to the above questions by 31 March 2014. For clarity, please repeat the above questions in your response. Please note that this letter and Bell Fund's response will be placed on the public record.

Should you need further information concerning your application, please do not hesitate to contact me by telephone at 819-956-2974 or by email at julie.st-pierre@crtc.gc.ca.

Given the time granted to reply hereby, the intervention period of this proceeding will be extended until 1 April 2014. This first phase will be followed by a 10-day reply period.
Yours sincerely,

Julie St-Pierre
Policy Analyst, French-Language Programming
Television Policies and Applications

c.c. Ms. Peggy Tabet
Québecor Média Inc. on behalf of TVA Group Inc.

( tabet.peggy@quebecor.com )

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