OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC today approved Rogers Media’s $375 million purchase of Citytv as well as Astral Media’s Standard Broadcasting buy. A decision that took about than a month from the end of the hearings.
Rogers had proposed the acquisition of the Citytv stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, which the Commission wouldn’t let CTV have when it bought the stations’ former owner, CHUM Ltd.
In its decision, the Commission is also requiring that Rogers Media sell, within the next 12 months, its two religious stations, CHNU-TV Fraser Valley and CIIT-TV Winnipeg, since maintaining these two stations would contravene the CRTC’s policy on common ownership. Rogers had offered to sell those stations in its application and at the hearing, which Cartt.ca covered last month.
In addition, Rogers Media must fulfill by August 31, 2011, the benefits payments left outstanding by the previous owners of the Citytv stations which had to do with CHUM’s prior purchase of Craig Media.
Regarding the benefits package associated with the current transaction, Rogers Media will direct annual payments to programming and industry initiatives, including the Allan Waters Canadian Content Initiative. Rogers Media also made a commitment to maintain independent news departments and separate presentation structures for its Citytv and OMNI stations, the CRTC decision noted.
Also today, the Commission rubber-stamped the billion-dollar Astral Media Radio acquisition of 53 radio stations and two conventional television stations owned by Standard Radio, which Cartt.ca also covered in August.
