The acquisition of Canadian multimedia company CTVglobemedia (CTVgm) by BCE has come under fresh attack, according to media reports.
BCE, a holding company which controls telco Bell Communications, will go before the Canadian Radio-Television…
The acquisition of Canadian multimedia company CTVglobemedia (CTVgm) by BCE has come under fresh attack, according to media reports.
BCE, a holding company which controls telco Bell Communications, will go before the Canadian Radio-Television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today to ask for approval for the acquisition.
BCE currently holds a 15% stake in CTVgm. It is aiming to acquire the remaining 85% stake in the company, which is currently held by Ontario Ltd, the Ontario Teacher’s Plan Board and the Torstar Corporation, a newspaper and book publisher.
The acquisition, announced in September, is expected to cost BCE up to C$3.2bn (US$3.2bn). It will give BCE full control of the broadcaster CTV and a 15% equity stake in the newspaper the Globe & Mail.
But opponents of the deal have called on the CRTC to add safeguards to the deal to prevent market abuses and protect competition in the domestic market.
These opponents have reportedly seen their hopes increase as a result of recent CRTC decisions.
On January 26, the CRTC published its decision on complaints made by two Canadian telcos – Bell and Telus Communications – against the TVA group (a TV network) and Videotron, two subsidiaries of Quebecor Media.
It ruled that Quebecor must make the programmes from the TVA Group distributed on video-on-demand (VOD) services available to Bell and Telus.
Bell and Telus were working in the same direction with this case, but with the CTV deal they are in different camps.
The Globe & Mail reported on January 30 that Telus is now planning to use the Quebecor ruling to call for more safeguards on the BCE-CTV deal.
It quoted the Telus senior VP for government and regulatory affairs, Michael Hennessy, saying that the hearing with Bell today had just become much easier.
Telus submitted comments to the CRTC on the BCE-CTV deal on January 11.
It said that “the massive concentration and vertical integration of the broadcasting industry in Canada” needed to be kept in check in order to provide the best deal to consumers.
It also said that exclusive content arrangements made by carriers – where a subscription with a particular carrier would be required to watch particular content – would restrict consumer choice.
It called for a new status quo of “no carriage of content exclusives” on any platform.
It said: “Safeguards are required to prevent anti-competitive behaviour.”
The CRTC hearing today comes after a month of controversy in the domestic telecoms market.
On January 25, the CRTC adopted new usage-based billing (UBB) rules for Canadian internet providers.
The news brought criticism from smaller ISPs, who argued that they would be unable to offer unlimited data plans, where consumers could download an unlimited amount of data.
That was despite the fact that small ISPs will be given a 15% discount on the rates from larger telcos like Bell.
The new UBB system is set to come into effect on March 31.
The CRTC refused to comment before the hearing. Telus was unavailable for comment.
