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August 8 - August 15,2004 |
CRTC denies RAI International license
Government body cites competition with Telelatino and RAI Canada as reasons for decision
By Francesco Riondino
Originally Published: 2004-07-25
After many months, last week the CRTC ruled on RAI International's application for broadcasting in Canada, denying it.
A brief communiqué, posted on the Canadian Radiotelevision and Telecommunication Commission website, announced that, out of 15 applications submitted by non-Canadian third-language (Ed.'s Note: neither English nor French) applications, nine had been accepted and six denied: RAI International, four Spanish-language TVs including Spain's national public broadcaster TVE Internacional, and an Arabic-language station.
CRTC approved also Al Jazeera, the controversial 'Arab CNN', although the Commission granted censorship powers (for potentially offensive content) to its carrier service.
In the ruling itself, no fewer than five pages (out of 20) were devoted to RAI International.
First, the document summarizes the positions held by Rogers (sponsoring RAI International's application) and other supporters, mentioning RAI International's dissatisfaction with Telelatino's editing of the programmes broadcast, the new significance of RAI International information programmes in light of the new Italian law on voting abroad, and the mandate of Italy's public television.
In its application, Rogers declared that RAI International would continue to make its programming available to other Canadian broadcasters, including Telelatino, quoting RAI International's director Massimo Magliaro: "...we would like to confirm that in the event that the CRTC approves Rogers' proposal, RAI will not hold, obtain, nor will it exercise any preferential or exclusive programming rights in relation to the distribution of programming in Canada. RAI will continue to make available its programmes to other Canadian programming services, and in particular Telelatino after August 31, 2003."
As to the opponents, CRTC mentions Telelatino's position, which remarked, "for nearly 20 years, the Italian-language component of Telelatino has been almost exclusively identified with RAI programming. TLN stated RAI International notified it, by letter dated November 20, 2002, that its programme supply agreement with Telelatino would be terminated effective August 31, 2003. TLN submitted that RAI International had expressed a willingness to entertain an annual negotiation of specific programmes on a title-by-title basis, but that RAI International was not prepared to give it any real assurance that the previous quantity and variety of programming would continue to be available to TLN. In addition, TLN argued that RAI International would also compete with its approved but as yet unlaunched Category 2 services."
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