CRTC rules on Rogers, Astral acquisitions

While it held their public hearings two days apart, the CRTC today ruled on both Rogers Media Inc.'s and Astral Media's proposed acquisitions of the Citytv stations and Standard Radio Inc., respectively. Not surprisingly, both transactions were approved by the commission. Rogers/Citytv:In Broadcasting Decision 2007-360, the CRTC approved Rogers' purchase of the Citytv stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, but ordered the company to sell its two religious stations, CHNU-TV Fraser Valley and CIIT-TV Winnipeg, within the next 12 months. As well, the broadcaster will fulfill Citytv's outstanding benefits payments of $2,938,200 from the Craig Media acquisition by August 31, 2011. Rogers' request as part of the transaction that conditions of license for the Toronto and Vancouver stations be amended to increase the maximum number of hours devoted to feature-length documentaries per year from 10 to 20 was denied by the commission on the grounds it would decrease the broadcast of Canadian feature films. The value of the transaction was also revised to $395 million from $375 million, adjusting Rogers' tangible benefits allocation to $39.5 million. The tangible benefits allocation will include $3.5 million annual payments to the Allan Waters Canadian Content Initiative. With the Rogers/Citytv hearing and decision book-ending the Diversity of Voices proceedings, it's prudent to note how the commission will ensure programming diversity in markets where Rogers now owns a Citytv and Omni station. The CRTC ruled that, in such markets, no more than 10% of all programming broadcast during each broadcast week shall be broadcast on both the OMNI and the Citytv television stations; no third-language ethnic programming shall be broadcast on both the OMNI and the Citytv television stations; and Citytv shall broadcast, at a minimum, in each broadcast year, an average of eight hours of priority programming per week, which must be distinct from the English-language programming broadcast on Omni. As well, "The commission expects the licensee to maintain independent management of news departments, and to maintain separate presentation structures for all broadcast services that provide news programming."Astral/Standard:In Broadcasting Decision 2007-359, the CRTC approved Astral's acquisition of 52 radio stations and 2 conventional television stations owned by Standard Radio. The deal was worth $1,043,079, 840.Tangible benefits to the radio sector resulting from the transaction total $61,585,568, with $30,792,341 going to the Radio Starmaker Fund, 20% of which will be distributed to Fonds RadioStar, $20,528,227 to FACTOR, 10% of which will be distributed to MUSICACTION, and $10,265,000 to Canadian content development initiatives, over the next seven broadcast years. Benefits to the television sector total $1,666,850.

CRTC rules on Rogers, Astral acquisitions

Broadcast | September 28, 2007

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