Broadcasting Commission Letter addressed to Pam Dinsmore (Rogers Communications Inc.)
Ottawa, 31 October 2022
Our reference: 2017-138
BY EMAIL
Pam Dinsmore
Vice-President, Regulator
Rogers Communications Inc.
Pam.Dinsmore@rci.rogers.com
Re: Request for Information regarding availability of Described Video on Video-on- Demand Services – Request to disclose information designated as confidential
Pam Dinsmore,
Commission staff acknowledges receipt of the correspondence provided by Rogers Communications Inc. (Rogers) dated 12 September 2022 in response to Broadcasting - Commission Letter addressed to the Distribution List regarding the availability of Described Video on Video-on-Demand Services.
With this letter, Commission staff is requesting disclosure of the following documents submitted in confidence by Rogers:
- Rogers’ response to Question 3(d): Is all content that is also broadcast on linear channels and services with DV made available in the associated VOD services (licensed and over-the-top) with DV? If not, explain why not?
- Appendix A - Described Video – Rogers on Demand
At the time that Rogers filed its response, it designated the above information as ‘confidential’ in accordance with section 31 of the CRTC Rules of Practice and Procedure. Rogers provided the following rationale for its designation of confidentiality for this information at paragraph 2 of its letter dated 12 September 2022:
“This information is of a commercially sensitive nature and has been treated consistently in a confidential manner by Rogers, the disclosure of which could subject Rogers to an undue disadvantage.”
Commission staff is of the view that Rogers has not provided sufficiently specific rationale to justify that disclosure of this information would be likely to result in specific direct harm and that this harm outweighs the public interest in disclosure, nor did it explain how the information at issue meets the criteria listed in the Appendices to Information Bulletin 2010-961. Commission staff further notes that the information requested in Appendix A is information that has always been disclosed on the Commission’s web site as part of data collection pursuant to Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2011-59-1. Also, the requested information was submitted publicly by other service providers without a designation of confidentiality. For these reasons, Commission staff considers that the information in Appendix A is not confidential and that release of this information and the response to Question 3(d) is in the public interest.
Accordingly, Rogers is to submit a non-abridged version of its response to Question 3(d) and Appendix A, or re-file to the Commission a complete rationale for confidentiality no later than 7 November 2022.
All documents filed in response to this request are to be submitted in a file format that is accessible by someone who is blind or partially sighted who may benefit from a file format that allows for text to be enlarged or modified or read by screen readers (for example, in MSWord, not pdf. Please refer to Creating Accessible Documents that is available on the CRTC’s website.
When submitting documents, use the following naming convention: “Company Name – Report – Described Video – Brand name (if applicable) – Title of document (i.e. cover letter, appendix) if multiple documents are filed – FR/EN – Abridged/Confidential (if applicable) – YYYY-MM-DD”.
Sincerely,
Original signed by
Nanao Kachi
Director
Social and Consumer Policy
Consumer Affairs and Strategic Policy
c.c.: Meghan Zwiers, Meghan.Zwiers@crtc.gc.ca
Paula Jaramillo Palacio, Paula.JaramilloPalacio@crtc.gc.ca
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