This is the fourth installment in our series about the new Terms of Trade applicable to the English-language Canadian private broadcasting industry (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). This installment focuses on Section 5 (License Term) of the Terms of Trade Agreement. This is the fourth of an anticipated nine posts which will be posted over the course of the next week and which will cover the Terms of Trade in detail. Once all nine posts have been published, the archived posts will be available at this link.

What do the Terms of Trade say about... the duration of broadcast licenses?

Broadcast licenses can have a maximum duration of five years.

The term of a broadcast license must commence no later than the earlier of (i) delivery of the program (or last episode of a series) and (ii) first broadcast of the program (or episode of a series).

Broadcast licenses cannot provide for an automatic extension of term if a broadcaster picks up (one or more) additional season(s) of a series. This is an important point: many broadcast license have previously provided that the term of the license automatically extends if the broadcaster picks up a subsequent season of a series.

Please see full article below for more information.