OTTAWA – The CRTC will examine licence renewal applications from Rogers Media, plus consider a second request for a Canadian film channel and a pay-per-view service for Telus at a hearing scheduled for April 8, 2014 in Gatineau.
The Commission made public Wednesday that Rogers has filed applications to renew the broadcasting licences for 17 of its television services and stations, including its City stations, multilingual ethnic television stations and Sportsnet. In addition to licence renewal, the Commission will examine “key issues” relating to these applications including the group-based approach to the licensing of the City television stations and specialty Category A services; programming changes relating to the OMNI multilingual ethnic television stations; an evaluation of Rogers’ compliance with the nature of service definitions for the specialty Category A services G4techTV and Outdoor Life Network; the deletion of the requirement to abide by a terms of trade agreement; and licence terms for the various services.
Other applications include a licence request for English-language Canadian film channel Starlight, a request from Le Groupe 50+ Ltée for a French-language specialty service to be known as Canal 50+, an English-language sports service called EDGEsport devoted to extreme sports, and a national terrestrial pay-per-view service to be known as Telus Pay-per-view.
Interventions are due by February 28, 2014.
