Rogers ordered to put employment and programming data on the public record for merger hearing

The CRTC ordered Rogers Communications Inc. to submit a list of its original community programming, aggregate returns filed with the CRTC, and employment data on the public record to help the commission better understand how its proposed merger with Shaw Communications Inc. will affect diversity in broadcasting. In a letter dated Oct. 21, the CRTC responded to a September request made by the Community Media Advocacy Centre (CMAC) that Rogers file additional information related to its application for the transfer in ownership of Shaw. “The commission believes that certain information specified by CMAC would benefit the record of this proceeding,” the CRTC wrote in a separate letter to Rogers. Among the approved items was a list of original community programming produced by both Rogers’ and Shaw’s community programming services associated with licensed broadcasting distribution undertakings (BDU) between Sept. 2020 and Aug. 2021. “The commission may wish to consider the manner in which the proposed transaction may affect the level of locally reflective and locally relevant content that would be provided to Canadians under Rogers’s current proposals… how this transaction could improve access to and the representation of underrepresented communities in the Canadian broadcasting system,” the commission wrote in its letters. The market data the CRTC requested from Rogers are St. John’s, N.L., Saint John and Fredericton, N.B., and Barrie, London and Kitchener, Ont. In addition, the company was asked to identify which programs in those areas “reflect and provide opportunities” for equity-seeking groups. The markets requested for Shaw are Winnipeg, Man., Saskatoon, Sask., Red Deer, Alta., and Victoria and Nanaimo, B.C. To further explore how the merger will impact locally reflective news and programming, the commission asked Rogers to place its Cable/IPTV and Shaw’s Cable/IPTV and direct-to-home (DTH) BDU services aggregate returns filed with the CRTC since 2018 on the public record, as well as the amounts related to local expression contributions that are devoted to the production of local news on local television stations. Finally, the commission also approved CMAC’s requests to put Rogers' 2019 Diversity Report on the record and to provide employment data related to the operation of both company’s community channels, as relates to licensed BDUs, as well as Shaw’s licensed DTH pay-per-view services. The CRTC requested the data for the 2019-2020 broadcast year be provided and that it should indicate the number of men, women, white, ethnocultural groups (separated into subgroups), Indigenous people (separated into subgroups), persons with a disability, and LGBTQ2+ employees. The CRTC denied several financial requests by CMAC -- to order Rogers to publish a complete breakdown of the Shaw assets it purchased, indicating the kind of service and individual cost of purchase, and to publish its subscription fees -- noting that all information that did not raise confidentiality concerns was already on the record. It further denied a request to order Rogers to publish Cable Public Affairs Channel Inc.’s (CPAC) annual statement of revenue and operating expenses, noting that Rogers does “not have the legal authority to represent CPAC nor to publicly disclose the statement of revenue and operating expenses of a third party.” In separate letters published this week, the CRTC also denied requests, submitted by Forum for Research and Policy in Communications, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the National Pensioners Federation, to strike CPAC’s reply to interveners in the Rogers-Shaw merger from the public record. The organizations argued that only applicants in a proceeding may file a reply. However, the commission pointed out that it recently granted CPAC the right to participate in the proceeding as an interested party, and file replies, making the requests moot. Rogers will have until Nov. 1 to submit the requested information. As a result the CRTC, in a separate notice issued Friday, extended some deadlines. The commission is allowing for parties to submit information in response to undertakings by Nov. 29; for interveners to make final written submissions by Dec. 13; and for Rogers and CPAC to file any final replies by Dec. 20. — Reporting by Jenna Cocullo at jcocull@thewirereport.ca and editing by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca.

Rogers ordered to put employment and programming data on the public record for merger hearing

News | 10/22/2021 6:21 pm EDT

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