Broadcasting Commission Letter adressed to Lecia Simpson (Telus Communications Inc.)
Ottawa, 31 October 2022
Our reference: 2017-138
BY EMAIL
Lecia Simpson
Director, Regulatory Affairs
TELUS Communications Inc.
regulatory.affairs@telus.com
Re: Request for Information regarding availability of Described Video on Video-on- Demand Services – Request to disclose information designated as confidential
Lecia Simpson,
Commission staff acknowledges receipt of the correspondence provided by TELUS Communications Inc. (TELUS) dated 21 October 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 TELUS:
- TELUS’ response to Question 2 - Is DV available on your over-the-top (digital media broadcasting) VOD platforms (if applicable)? If yes, how many titles and hours of DV are available on these platforms over broadcast year 2021-2022? Provide these data in the table templates set out in Appendix A.
- Appendix A - Described Video on traditional VOD platform
At the time that TELUS filed its response, it designated the above information as ‘confidential’ in accordance with sections 31 and 32 of the CRTC’s Rules of Practice and Procedure and Procedures for filing confidential information. TELUS provided the following rationale for its designation of confidentiality for this information at paragraph 2 of its letter dated 21 October 2022:
“TELUS hereby claims confidentiality for the information set out in answer 2 and in Appendix A, which is competitively sensitive and is not normally made available publicly on such a disaggregated level. If disclosed, this information would provide TELUS’ competitors with a material advantage and compromise TELUS’ ability to compete effectively in the future.”
Commission staff is of the view that TELUS 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 2 is in the public interest.
Accordingly, TELUS is to submit a non-abridged version of its response to Question 2 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
- Date modified: