VMedia shopping for QVC appeal

A CRTC decision to deny an application by VMedia Inc. to carry U.S. shopping channel QVC will be scrutinized by a judge after the independent provider was granted leave to appeal the decision in federal court. VMedia is asking the court to throw out the commission’s April decision, saying that the CRTC made mistakes in its rationale for not adding QVC to the list of non-Canadian programming services and stations authorized for distribution. In its decision, the CRTC said “if authorized, QVC would be carrying on a broadcasting undertaking in whole or in part in Canada,” which would require a licence and that broadcasting licences can’t be issued to non-Canadians. By making this decision, the CRTC “failed to consider what constitutes ‘broadcasting’ or a ‘broadcasting undertaking’ under the Act, any jurisprudence regarding the scope of broadcasting activities, or the CRTC’s own decision in similar circumstances,” VMedia said in a July 18 notice of appeal. In a memorandum of fact and law filed before the June 10 order granting the appeal, VMedia argued that broadcasting is confined to “the technical distribution of content by an entity and not to an entity’s other business activities, such as retail activities.” VMedia said that prior to the QVC decision, “the CRTC and the broadcasting industry proceeded on the basis that the operator of a non-Canadian programming service on the List does not engage in broadcasting in Canada when its signal is transmitted in Canada by a BDU,” but rather it is a Canadian BDU that is authorized to distribute the non-Canadian signal. The CRTC had come to an “unreasonable conclusion that merely because QVC would be taking orders from and delivering products to Canadian consumers, it would be carrying on a broadcasting undertaking in Canada,” the memo said. Rogers Communications Inc., which owns and operates the Canadian equivalent of QVC, The Shopping Channel, was named as a respondent in the legal proceeding and argued in a memorandum of fact and law that the CRTC was sound in its decision making. The CRTC concluded that the content carried on QVC cannot be separated from its retail activities, Rogers said. “QVC would not be operating two distinct businesses, one retail and one programming, but rather would be operating a single functionally-integrated enterprise,” Rogers’ memo said. “This is consistent with the statutory definition and judicial treatment of the term ‘undertaking’ in the broadcasting context.” The American company’s intention “is to do business in Canada directly with Canadians through its television channel,” and it is “disingenuous for VMedia to say that QVC would not be targeting Canadian consumers via its programming” if it was approved for broadcast, Rogers said. Furthermore, by linking itself to VMedia, QVC was attempting to circumvent a 2002 decision by the CRTC to keep the Canadian ownership requirement for the Teleshopping Exemption Order that would allow it to be carried in Canada, Rogers claimed in the memo. — With reporting by Charelle Evelyn at cevelyn@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

VMedia shopping for QVC appeal

Broadcast | September 1, 2016

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VMedia shopping for QVC appeal

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