By 1968, NTV put forward its first official license application, under which the original 96 transmitters would be supplemented by 43 more transmitters to distribute a separate French language service, along with provisions for the free distribution of CBC Television, Radio-Canada and a new noncommercial educational television service on the network's satellite. Transponder space would also be leased to CTV and Télé-Métropole, but as competing commercial services they would not have been granted the free distribution rights the plan offered to the public television services. However, after federal communications minister Paul Hellyer announced plans to move forward with the publicly owned Anik series of broadcast satellites through Telesat Canada instead of leaving the rollout of satellite technology in the hands of private corporations, Power Corporation backed out of the application and left NTV in limbo.