The CRTC in a decision last week denied an April 2023 application from a group of six public interest organizations asking the commission to accelerate the payment of tangible benefits allocated to the Broadcasting Participation Fund (BPF) as part of the CRTC’s March 2022 approval of Rogers’s acquisition of Shaw’s broadcasting assets.
The group behind the application included the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, the Consumers’ Association of Canada (Manitoba), the Consumers Council of Canada, Option Consommateurs, and the Union des Consommateurs.
In its March 2022 decision approving Rogers’s Shaw acquisition, the CRTC required Rogers to pay $725,439 to the BPF in equal payments over three consecutive broadcast years.
In its July 26 decision last week, the commission said Rogers has completely fulfilled the conditions of approval for the Shaw acquisition, including disbursing the first payment of $241,813 to the BPF by Aug. 31, 2023. Rogers has confirmed it intends to disburse the last two payments each broadcast year for 2024 and 2025, the CRTC notes in its decision.
The commission also notes it does not have the authority to reopen its past decisions under the Broadcasting Act and, accordingly, it denies the public interest groups’ application, which had asked that Rogers be required to pay the full amount of tangible benefits to the BPF by Sept. 1, 2023.
