March 5, 2009

Mr. Robert A. Morin

Secretary General

CRTC

Ottawa ON

K1A 0N2

                                       Re: Broadcasting Notice of Consultation CRTC 2009-36

                                             Ultimate Indie Productions Inc.

                                             Application No. 2008-1465-9

                                             Application No. 2008-1468-3

Dear Mr. Morin,

1.      We are very pleased that Ultimate Indie Productions Inc. has submitted their application to the CRTC for this very innovative new channel.  We feel that the addition of this service will greatly enhance the exposure of new Canadian musical acts on Canadian television.  

2.      We certainly support this application.  However, we have noted the following from the CRTC web site:

“The applicant states that 100% of the programming will focus on the work of emerging Canadian musical artists who have not achieved Canadian sales of 80,000 copies of any single recording.”

3.      After a number of months of discussion with the industry over the past year, the CAB and CIRPA arrived at a common definition of a new act that was submitted to the Commission for their consideration.  We were expecting that a decision on this matter might have been made last fall (2008), but we have yet to hear anything further on it from the CRTC.

4.      Nonetheless, we would suggest that Ultimate Indie be asked to conform their definition to ours and that of ADISQ to create a common understanding in the industry of a “new artist” and what that means for practical purposes.  Failing that, we would suggest that the CRTC publish what they consider a “new act” as a guideline for all similar initiatives.

5.      I am attaching our original submission on the matter.

Yours sincerely,

Duncan McKie

President and CEO

CIRPA