ARCHIVED - Commission Letter addressed to Susan Wheeler (Rogers Media Inc.)

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Ottawa, 25 January 2016

By e-mail: susan.wheeler@rci.rogers.com

Ms. Susan Wheeler
Vice President, Regulatory, Media
Rogers Media Inc.

Dear Ms. Wheeler,

This is in reference to a letter sent by Rogers Media Inc. (Rogers Media) on 18 January 2016 requesting an extension to the filing deadline of its application to renew the licences of its various services that are set to expire on 31 August 2017 including those of its designated Group as well as other services including the OMNI television stations.

In its letter, Rogers Media stated that it was concerned that a filing deadline of 7 March 2016 for the services currently within its Group and its Category C services would not allow for enough time to evaluate the impacts and implement the Commission’s various policy determinations stemming from the Let’s Talk TV decisions.

Consequently, Rogers Media argued that the earliest possible timeframe to assess how the market will react to the above-noted changes would be May or June 2016.  However, at a minimum, it requested that it be given the same deadline to file its applications as its competitors Bell Media and Shaw/Corus in order to ensure that all licensees benefit from the same market information and experience when preparing their licence renewal applications.  Notwithstanding this request for an extension to the filing deadline, Rogers Media did confirm that it is prepared to file its licence renewal application for the OMNI television stations by 7 March 2016.

In light of the arguments made by Rogers Media, the initial deadline of 7 March 2016 regarding the filing of Rogers Media’s licence renewal application for its OMNI services will be maintained.  An extension to 1 April 2016 will be granted for Rogers Media to file its application for the remaining services noted in section A.2 of the application.

Rogers Media is reminded that article 24 of the CRTC’s Rules of Practice and Procedure stipulates that “an applicant must not amend an application or file any supplementary documents related to the application with the Commission after the application has been posted on the Commission’s website”.  Accordingly, since the Commission has yet to publish these applications, Rogers Media may, at any time until the publication of its applications, amend the information it has submitted or file supplementary information related to its licence renewal applications.
Should you require further information regarding the renewal process and deadlines, do not hesitate to contact the undersigned at 819-997-9392 or at tina-louise.latourelle@crtc.gc.ca.

Best regards,

Tina Louise Latourelle
Senior Policy Analyst
TV Policy and Applications

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