CRTC rejects broadcasting complaints

The CRTC rejected two broadcasting complaints, one by the former Astral Media Inc. about Quebecor Media Inc.’s illico Club Unlimited service and another about CBC/Radio-Canada’s Explora specialty service, the commission said. In a decision Tuesday, the CRTC said it rejected Astral’s February complaint that illico Club Unlimited competed against Astral’s Super Écran pay TV channel in violation of commission rules, which prohibit video-on-demand services from competing with the Category A “general interest” channel. Astral, which was acquired by BCE Inc. in July, said in its complaint that illico Club Unlimited—an online and mobile video-on-demand service offered by Quebecor’s Videotron Ltd. subsidiary—competed against Super Écran by offering French-language TV series and films. The commission said illico Club Unlimited does not compete against Super Écran because the shows and movies it offers come from a different “broadcast window” and because “there is currently no overlap between the programming offered by Super Écran and Illico Club.” In a separate decision, the CRTC said it rejected a Serdy Media Inc. complaint that CBC’s Explora service competed against Serdy’s Category A Évasion specialty channel, in violation of its licence conditions. Serdy said in the July 2012 complaint that Explora, a Category B specialty service, violated its licence conditions by airing programming from the “adventure” genre, making it directly competitive with Évasion. The commission said Explora’s programming falls under the “scientific discoveries,” “environment,” “nature” and “human health” genres from which the station is allowed to draw programming. It also rejected Serdy’s complaint that CBC violated other licence conditions by advertising the Explora station on its La Première Chaîne and Espace Musique radio stations last year, when neither station was licenced to air ads. The promotions, it said, did not count as advertising because CBC did not receive “consideration” in return for promoting the channel.

CRTC rejects broadcasting complaints

Brief | August 20, 2013

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CRTC rejects broadcasting complaints

Brief | August 20, 2013

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