ARCHIVED -  Decision CRTC 98-451

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Decision

See also: 1998-451-1

Ottawa, 25 September 1998

Decision CRTC 98-451
Vidéotron ltée
Saint-Joachim-de-Montmorency (Côte-de-Beaupré) and Sainte-Pétronille (Île d'Orléans), Quebec - 199801741 - 199801759
Acquisition of assets
1. Following a Public Hearing in the National Capital Region held on 20 July 1998, the Commission approves the applications for authority to acquire the assets of the cable distribution undertakings serving the above-mentioned localities from Regional Cablesystems Inc. (Regional), and for broadcasting licences to continue the operation of these undertakings.
2. These applications were conditional upon Commission approval of an application submitted by Northern Cable Holdings Ltd. and Sudbury Cable Services Limited, to transfer the control of those companies to Regional. That application is approved in Decision CRTC 98-452, also published today.
3. The price of this transaction is $9 million. Based on the evidence filed with the applications, the Commission has no concerns with respect to the availability or the adequacy of the required financing and is satisfied that approval of the applications is in the public interest.
4. The Commission will issue Class 3 licences to Vidéotron ltée, expiring 31 August 2001 (the current expiry date of the licences), upon surrender of the current licences.
5. The operation of these undertakings is regulated pursuant to Parts 1 and 3 of the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations. The licences will be subject to the conditions in effect under the current licences as well as to those conditions specified in this decision and in the licences to be issued.
6. Consistent with Decision CRTC 96-391 in the case of the undertaking serving Saint-Joachim-de-Montmorency, and Decision CRTC 95-8 in the case of the undertaking serving Sainte-Pétronille (Île d'Orléans), the licensee is authorized to continue to distribute, at its option, CFCF-TV (CTV) and CFTU-TV (IND) Montréal, WVNY (ABC) and WCAX-TV (CBS) Burlington, Vermont, and WPTZ (NBC) and WCFE-TV (PBS) Plattsburgh, New York, as part of the basic service.
7. The licensee is also authorized to distribute, at its option, WUTV (FOX) Buffalo, New York, as part of the basic service of each undertaking.
8. The licensee may receive any authorized signals over the air, or from any licensed or exempted Canadian broadcasting distribution undertaking authorized to provide signals to other broadcasting distribution undertakings. The Commission notes that the licensee receives the above-noted signals via microwave.
9. It is a condition of each licence that, for community programming and any other programming of a service that it originates, the licensee adhere to the guidelines on the depiction of violence in television programming set out in the Canadian Association of Broadcasters' Voluntary Code Regarding Violence in Television Programming, as amended from time to time and approved by the Commission.
10. The Commission notes that this licensee is subject to the Employment Equity Act that came into effect on 24 October 1996 (1996 EEA), and therefore files reports concerning employment equity with Human Resources Development Canada. As a result of a consequential amendment to the Broadcasting Act, the Commission no longer has the authority to apply its employment equity policy to any undertaking that is subject to the 1996 EEA.
11. The Commission acknowledges the intervention submitted in support of these applications, and the applicant's reply thereto.
This decision is to be appended to each licence.
Laura M. Talbot-Allan
Secretary General
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