ARCHIVED - Broadcasting Commission Letter addressed to Sylvie Courtemanche (Corus Entertainment Inc.)

Ottawa, 17 October 2016

VIA E-MAIL

Mrs. Sylvie Courtemanche
Vice-President, Government Relations
Corus Entertainment Inc.
sylvie.courtemanche@corusent.com

Dear Mrs. Courtemanche,

Re: Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2016-225, Renewal of television licences held by large English- and French-language ownership groups - Applications
2016-0015-6 and 2016-0022-1 Resubmission of programming expenses

As you know, in an email dated 13 October 2016, certain discrepancies were identified in the programming expenses reported by Corus in its annual returns for the 2014/15 broadcast year and the numbers reported as part of its applications to renew the broadcasting licences of its French- and English-language services dated 18 April 2016 and 6 May 2016 respectively. We understand that these discrepancies resulted from Corus’ revision of its expenditure allocation principles relating to non-telecast Canadian programming expenses, as reported in Form 1230 of the annual return. Corus has refiled, on 14 and 17 October 2016, Form 1230 for each of its pay & specialty services and revised aggregate and PNI reports with the revised numbers for the 2014-2015 broadcast year.

In light of the above, it appears that Corus needs to update its programming expenditures, both historical and projected, provided as part of its group-based licence renewal applications (application numbers 2016-0015-6 and 2016-0022-1) to reflect the revisions made to its expenditure allocation. Consequently, Corus is required to resubmit the following financial information:

• Appendix 1 – Historical Canadian Programming Expenditures (CPE) by program category;
• Appendix 2 – Historical expenditures relating to first-run and new commissioned programming;
• Appendix 3 – Historical expenditures relating to Programs of National Interest; and
• Appendix 4 - Projected CPE by program category.

Each appendix should be submitted separately for each affected service (list attached).

In addition, Corus is required to resubmit the following financial information for the affected French-language services (list attached):

• Annexe 1 – Total des dépenses au titre des émissions canadiennes par catégories;
• Annexe 2 – Programmation originale de première diffusion et nouvelle émission commandées;
• Annexe 3 – Programme d’intérêt national pas région et par langue; and
• Annexe 4 – Total des dépenses prévues au titre des émissions canadiennes.

The revised appendices should be returned using the attached templates. Both abridged and non-abridged versions must be filed. You are required to provide the information/document(s) noted above by 19 October 2016 in accordance with the Commission’s letter regarding the disclosure of information designated as confidential dated 13 July 2016 (13 July letter).

Please note that the procedural directions in the 13 July letter are in addition to the rules set out in the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure, which establish the procedure with respect to proceedings before the Commission. In addition to the Rules of practice and procedure, you may find useful to consult the guidelines on the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure in Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin CRTC 2010-959.

The Commission requires that you submit your documents electronically using the secured service “My CRTC Account” (Partner Log In or GCKey) and fill in the “Broadcasting and Telecom Cover page” located on this web page.

A copy of this letter and all related correspondence will be added to the public record of the proceeding.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Hutton
Executive Director, Broadcasting

Date modified:

2016-10-17