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Broadcasting - Staff Letter addressed to Monika Ille (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Incorporated (APTN))

Ottawa, 8 August 2023

BY E-MAIL

Monika Ille
Chief Executive Officer
Aboriginal Peoples Television Network Incorporated (APTN)
339 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB
mille@aptn.ca

Re:  Part 1 Application to amend APTN's broadcasting licence - Application 2023-0395-7

In order for the Commission to complete the analysis of APTN’s application to amend its broadcasting licence, please respond to the following questions:

Programming

  1. Considering that the Commission has received two applications for mandatory distribution of services in Inuktut (NOC 2023-72) on the basic service, should the Commission approve either one or both of these applications how would this impact your application? 
  2. BRP 2010-629  defines original, first-run programming as “An “original, first-run program” is defined as the “original exhibition of a program that has not been distributed by another broadcasting undertaking licensed by the Commission”. What part of the 100 hours of Indigenous-language programming each week proposed on the new APTN Languages feed will be original first run programming? What would be the percentage change in original first-run programming?

Financial

  1. The projections submitted with your application are listed as being in thousands of dollars, however this does not appear to be the case. Please confirm that this is, in fact, an error.
  2. In your supplementary brief, you indicate that under an approval scenario, the changes to APTN’s broadcast feeds would take effect on September 1, 2024. The financial projections for year 1 submitted with this application are identical under an approval scenario and a denial scenario.
    1. Please confirm the broadcast years that are included within the financial projections.
    2. Should it be the case that year 1 of the financial projections as currently submitted covers a period prior to any changes take effect, please resubmit financial projections for the three broadcast years immediately following the changes to APTN’s broadcast feeds (2025 BY, 2026 BY and 2027 BY)
  3. In the supplementary brief, you state that “From a technical standpoint, creating a single feed will streamline APTN’s processes and improve our network’s overall efficiency… We expect to realize some cost efficiencies in changing to the simpler approach we have outlined here.” However, the Commission notes that technical expenses are higher under an approval scenario than under a denial scenario in your financial projections. Please clarify why the technical efficiencies alluded to in the application are not reflected in the financial projections.
  4. Please complete the following table:
    Financial Projections
    Financial projections breakdown 2025 BY 2026 BY 2027 BY
    A. Total estimated cost of the incremental programming,
    the implementation and marketing of the proposed feed change    		      
    B. Percentage of A funded by cost saving efficiencies      
    C. Percentage of A funded by the $0.03 rate increase      
    D. Percentage of A funded by other sources      
  5. Are the programming changes and changes to APTN’s broadcast feed explicitly tied to the approval of a $0.03 increase to APTN’s wholesale rate? If not, please provide a set of projections under the scenario whereby the Commission approves of the proposed changes without the wholesale rate increase.
    1. Please detail what impact, if any, there would be on the proposal should the Commission deny the wholesale rate increase or approve a smaller rate increase than the $0.03 per subscriber sought.

Your answers to the questions must be received no later than 22nd August 2023 and will be placed on the public record, accessible through the CRTC website. Please repeat the Commission’s questions before answering them and use the secure service My CRTC Account (Partner Log In or GCKey), indicating the application number 2023-0395-7.

Please also note that all information that you provide, except information for which confidentiality has been requested and is granted, becomes part of a publicly accessible file when the application is published for comment and will be posted on the Commission’s website and made available for public examination.

Should you need further information concerning this request for information, please do not hesitate to contact me by telephone at 873-353-6011, or by e-mail angela.athanasios@crtc.gc.ca .

Regards,

Angela Athanasios
Analyst, English-language Television

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