This was definitely a subject that was touched on at the CRTC hearing, and of course we acknowledge that once Shaw no longer owns Corus, it will be independent and will be eligible to get funding from the ILNF, which is effectively a $21-million-a-year fund that provides money to the independent broadcasters and comes out of the BDU, the cable and satellite contribution that we make to the broadcasting system.
Some players at the hearing suggested that perhaps the amount of money that comes out of the BDU contribution should be either increased or taken from other recipients of funding, like the CMF or the Canadian independent production funds.
We considered that this issue is bigger than that hearing and that this wasn't really so much a part of the transfer hearing but should be rolled into the CRTC's study of the ILNF, which it is going to do this year. This is something the commission itself will have to figure out—whether it should be restructuring the ILNF to take into account the fact that Corus will now be eligible to access that funding.
That said, when the CRTC asked us to revise our benefits package at the hearing, we proposed that as a one-time stopgap measure we'd be able to direct $8.5 million—effectively two-thirds of the $13 million—to the ILNF at the close of the transaction.
We await the commission's view on that proposal. If it says yes, that will at least help in the interim while the commission reviews the ILNF itself.