GATINEAU – Despite the fact that when compared to the likes of Rogers, Shaw, Bell, Telus, Videotron and Cogeco, Bragg Communications (EastLink) is pretty small, the CRTC told the company in a letter this week that it won’t be exempted from the CRTC’s requirement to file a public version of its aggregated annual return.
“In Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2009-560 the Commission determined that the disclosure of the public version of the aggregated annual return filed by the large ownership groups, including Bragg, was in the public interest, and that any harm that would result from such disclosure did not outweigh the public interest,” reads the letter from secretary general Robert Morin.
“The Commission notes that Bragg owns approximately 600 BDUs, which are located in nine provinces. Bragg is the dominant cable BDU service provider in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and provides service to a number of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, making it a significant regional provider of cable BDU services,” reads the letter. “According to the Commission’s records, the next largest owner of BDUs after Bragg is approximately 1/6th the size of Bragg in terms of broadcasting distribution revenues and number of subscribers. Bragg provides service to roughly 4% of Canadian households that subscribe to the services of a BDU.
“While it is true that many of Bragg’s cable systems are exempt from licensing, the Commission notes that exempt BDUs with over 2,000 subscribers are nevertheless required to file financial information with the Commission pursuant to Broadcasting Order 2009-544. The Commission further notes that this information is aggregated along with information on the licensed BDUs in an ownership group in the aggregated annual return. As such, the Commission does not consider the fact that most of Bragg’s systems are unlicensed outweighs the public interest in disclosing the aggregated annual return for Bragg,” the letter continues.
