OTTAWA – Rogers Media must submit licence renewal applications for its OMNI television stations a year early after the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) complained to the CRTC about the cancellation of some of the stations’ programs.
Rogers announced last May that it was making programming cuts to OMNI’s multicultural programming at the stations located in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Toronto. CEP filed its complaint with the CRTC a month later, asking for the programs to be reinstated, and that the Commission hold a hearing to discuss Rogers’ programming decisions.
While dismissing CEP’s complaint, the CRTC said Thursday that it is concerned by the potential impact of the changes on the communities served by the stations, by the apparent lack of local programming on some of the stations, and by the dearth of information received regarding Rogers’ consultations with the advisory councils.
Although the licences for the OMNI stations expire August 31, 2015, the Commission directed Rogers to submit the licence renewal applications next year so that it may review the OMNI stations’ programming issues sooner, consider appropriate measures related to local programming, and synchronize the expiry dates for all of Rogers’ television services. The licences for Rogers’ Citytv stations and specialty services expire on August 31, 2014.
