ARCHIVED -  Letter

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Ottawa, 21 November 2012

By E-mail: AshaDaniere@HiFiHDTV.ca

Ms. Asha Daniere
EVP, Business and Legal Affairs, Television and Digital
Blue Ant Media Partnership
130 Merton Street, Suite 200
Toronto, Ontario
M4S 1A4

Re: Applications for the licence renewal of Blue Ant Media’s various specialty Category A and B services: Travel + Escape (2012-1198-7), AUX-Tv (2012-1196-1), BITE (2012-1197-8), EQHD (2012-1199-5), HIFI (2012-1200-3), OASIS HD (2012-1201-8) and RAD X (2012-1202-6)

Ms. Daniere,

We are in receipt of Blue Ant Media’s (Blue Ant) licence renewal applications for the above-noted specialty services.

After having reviewed the aforementioned applications, we note that Blue Ant has submitted, as an appendix to these applications, a proposal entitled Schedule C: Towards an Enabling Environment for Independent Voices in Canadian English-Language Broadcasting (Schedule C).

As set out in the letter requesting Blue Ant’s licence renewal applications sent by Commission staff on 18 May 2012, the scope of this process is to examine the licence renewal applications of Blue Ant’s various licences, to determine which conditions of licence Blue Ant wishes to amend or maintain and to implement the Commission’s standard conditions of licence for Blue Ant’s various Category A and B services.

As such, while Schedule C contains requests pertaining to the group-based licensing of Blue Ant’s services and to a review of Canadian Programming Expenditures (CPE) and exhibition requirements, which are pertinent to the current licence renewal proceeding, Schedule C also includes ten requests to review various major Commission policies, which are not within the scope of the licence renewal process.

Accordingly, these broader policy issues will not be addressed as part of Blue Ant’s licence renewal. Further, the Commission will dispose of Schedule C and will not include it in the public file for Blue Ant’s various licence renewal applications.

Should it decide to do so, Blue Ant may file a revised version of its licence renewal applications that reflects the determination in this letter before 15 December 2012. Should Blue Ant decide not to revise its applications, the Commission will publish the applications as filed, without Schedule C.

Finally, please note that this letter will be available on the public file of the aforementioned licence renewal applications.

Sincerely,

Original signed by

Scott Hutton
Executive Director
Broadcasting

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