TORONTO – TLN Media Group (some of you still might readily identify it as Telelatino), is asking its friends and supporters to get behind its petition to cabinet which asks the government to overturn the CRTC’s decision to grant a must-carry ethnic TV channel licence to Rogers Media.
As readers will recall, there was much competition for the 9(1)(h) TV licence which the CRTC decided to grant to Rogers to keep OMNI Television alive. Click here for our extensive prior coverage.
“Recently, the CRTC granted Rogers over 100 million dollars and a monopoly licence to operate a new national, multilingual TV channel, under the old OMNI name. Other applicants were rejected without explanation,” reads the TLN request for support.
“Many people are upset about the process and the legality of how they did this. And about the fact they've handed a multicultural licence to a giant Telecom company whose reputation is for cutting their newscasts, firing their staff and threatening to shut down all of their multicultural stations,” it continues.
“We and three other applicants have appealed the decision to the Government of Canada who has the power to send it back to the CRTC for reconsideration.
TLN, through its CanadaWorld website, has set up a web page which will automatically send a letter, which outlines seven reasons the decision must be sent back to the Commission, to cabinet, from each supporter who clicks through.
Cabinet has until August 22nd to announce a decision on the appeals.
