ARCHIVED - Letter
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BY E-MAIL
Johanne Saint-Laurent
Senior Vice-President, Business Affairs
Les Chaînes Télé Astral and
Vice-President, Director General
Astral Télé Réseau
1800 McGill College Avenue, Office 1600
Montreal, Quebec H3A 3J6
jsaint-laurent@astral.com
Louma Haffar
Senior Advisor, Regulatory Affairs - Broadcasting
Québecor Média inc.
612 Saint-Jacques Street, Montreal, Quebec H3C 4M8
louma.haffar@quebecor.com
Dear Mesdames:
Re: Request by Astral and Videotron to delay the schedule for final offer arbitration between Astral and Videotron (file number 8622-A124-201304907)
On 10 May 2013, the Commission received a letter signed by Astral Media inc. and Vidéotron S.E.N.C., in which the parties requested that the schedule for the final offer arbitration process announced in the Commission’s letter dated 3 May 2013 be delayed until 31 May 2013.
The Commission notes that as a result of a new affiliation agreement proposal made by Astral to Vidéotron on 3 May 2013, parties have agreed to attempt to resolve their dispute on their own. Accordingly, the Commission approves the requested delay.
Consequently, included below are the revised dates by which the final offer arbitration process is to be conducted. All other characteristics of the process remain the same.
The Commission requires that, by 31 May 2013, the parties individually submit their final offers, including supporting documentation, in response to the disputed matters as indicated in the Commission letter dated 3 May 2013.
To complete the record, by 31 May 2013, parties are required to provide answers to the series of questions appended to its 3 May 2013 letter. In addition, Vidéotron is required to answer an additional question, noted in the appendix below, by the same date.
By 5 June 2013, once the Commission considers that all offers respond to the identified disputed matters, the Commission will forward to each of the parties a copy of the other party’s offer and responses to the questions.
The parties will have until 10 June 2013 to file observations on the other party’s final offers and responses to the questions. However, they will not be authorized to amend their original offers.
Mandatory mediation
On a date to be indicated, the Commission will hold a mandatory mediation session for each arbitral proceeding after the written record is complete. Parties should familiarize themselves with the Commission’s expectations with respect to their participation in the mediation as set out in paragraph 129 of Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2011-601.
Filing of documents
Any documents filed with the Commission should be filed via the secure service “My CRTC Account (GCKey or Partner Log In)” using the “Broadcasting Online Form and Cover Page” on the web page.
Responsibilities of the parties
Parties may contact Claude Brault at 819-997-6064 or at claude.brault@crtc.gc.ca if they require additional information regarding the organization and conduct of the hearing.
Where a document is to be filed or served by a specific date, the document must be actually received, not merely sent, by that date. In addition to filing with the Commission, all copies of submissions are to be sent to claude.brault@crtc.gc.ca.
Original signed by John Traversy
John Traversy
Secretary General
c.c. C. Brault, CRTC, claude.brault@crtc.gc.ca
Laurence J.E. Dunbar, Fasken Martineau, ldunbar@fasken.com
Louma Haffar, Québecor Média, Louma.Haffar@quebecor.com
Dany Meloul, Les Chaînes Télé Astral, dmeloul@astral.com
Natalie Dorval, Astral Media Inc, ndorval@astral.com
Additional question:
Vidéotron
9. Provide for each year of the affiliation agreements between Astral and Vidéotron that expired on 31 December 2012, the penetration rate for each of the programming services. Provide all assumptions and calculations.
- Date modified: