ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Procedural Letter addressed to Various Parties

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Ottawa, 3 July 2015

By E-mail

Sylvie.courtemanche@corusent.com
Jay.thomson@cmpa.ca
mcollin@aqpm.ca

Dear:  Mme. Collin
Ms. Courtemanche
Mr. Thomson

Re: 2015-0336-8  Application to amend the conditions of licence of Corus Entertainment Inc.’s television programming undertaking Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) pursuant to policy changes announced in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2015-86 (BRP 2015-86) “Let’s Talk TV (LTTV)”

On 13 April 2015 Corus Entertainment Inc. (Corus), the licensee of OWN Inc (OWN) filed an  application to amend certain conditions of its licence following changes to the genre exclusivity policy as set out in Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2015-86 (BRP 2015-86). Corus also included as part of this application, a request to amend its condition of licence regarding the necessity to have a terms of trade agreement with the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA).

The CMPA sought leave to appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal, the portion of BRP 2015-86 in which the Commission found that the adherence to a Terms of Trade Agreement is no longer required as a condition of a broadcasters’ licence.

On 27 April 2015 the CMPA submitted a procedural request asking that the CRTC decline to consider Corus’s application to amend condition 14 of OWN’s licence or to defer consideration of this aspect of the Application until final disposition of the CMPA’s appeal.

On 29 May 2015, the Federal Court of Appeal issued an order denying the CMPA’s application for leave to appeal the Commission’s decision. In light of the Federal Court of Appeal’s ruling, the CMPA withdrew its 27 April 2015 request that the Commission stay or defer consideration of the Corus application to amend OWN’s terms of trade condition of licence.

On 3 June 2015, the CMPA submitted a second procedural request, asking that the Commission re-open its process to consider the present application and to set a deadline for the reception of additional comments from the CMPA. The CMPA submitted that it was limited in what it could properly address in its original submission as the matter was still before the Federal Court of Appeal and that it would be “in the public interest for the Commission to consider substantive arguments from the industry most affected before ruling on the Corus application to amend OWN’s ToT COL”.

On 4 June 2015, l’Association québecoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) submitted a similar request that the Commission re-open its process in order to permit the AQPM to respond to Corus’ reply to interventions dated 2 June 2015.

On 15 June 2015, Corus replied to the Commission’s 6 June 2015 procedural letter. Corus did not object to the CMPA’s request to set a second deadline for the reception of additional comments. However, Corus submitted that the opportunity for comments should be given to all parties as well as the CMPA and should be restricted to the Terms of Trade aspects of the application.

In light of the facts above, all parties that submitted comments in response to this application will now have until 15 July 2015 to submit further comments and Corus will have until 21 July 2015 to submit its reply.  Any additional comments should be limited to matters related to terms of trade in the originally filed application.

Should you need further information concerning this procedural letter, please do not hesitate to contact Tracy Speigel at 819-997-5984 or tracy.speigel@crtc.gc.ca .

Sincerely,

Original signed by
Sheehan Carter
Senior Manager
English and third-language television

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