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Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) president and CEO George
Cope (left) and Ian Greenberg, president and chief executive
officer of Astral Media Inc., speak at a news conference in
Montreal in March.
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“BCE failed to persuade us that the deal would benefit Canadians,” said Jean-Pierre Blais, Chairman of the CRTC. “It would have placed significant market power in the hands of one of the country’s largest media companies. We could not have ensured a robust Canadian broadcasting system without imposing extensive and intrusive safeguards, which would have been to the detriment of the entire industry.”
The proposed transaction raised substantial concerns related to healthy competition, the concentration of ownership in the television and radio markets, vertical integration and the exercise of market power in an anti-competitive manner. The CRTC was not persuaded that the transaction would have provided significant and unequivocal benefits to the Canadian broadcasting system and to Canadians sufficient to outweigh its concerns.
BCE already controls numerous television and radio services, as well as a national broadcasting distribution service. It is the largest Internet service provider in Canada, the second largest wireless service provider and the third largest television distributor. The acquisition of Astral Media’s services would have created a situation where a company of BCE’s size and scale would be able to exert its market power unfairly and hinder healthy competition.
The CRTC also denied BCE’s application to convert CKGM Montréal from an English- to a French-language station. BCE indicated that it was only interested in changing the station’s language format if its acquisition of Astral Media were approved.
Today’s decision follows a public proceeding, which included a public hearing held from September 10 to 14, 2012.
The proposed transaction raised substantial concerns related to healthy competition, the concentration of ownership in the television and radio markets, vertical integration and the exercise of market power in an anti-competitive manner. The CRTC was not persuaded that the transaction would have provided significant and unequivocal benefits to the Canadian broadcasting system and to Canadians sufficient to outweigh its concerns.
BCE already controls numerous television and radio services, as well as a national broadcasting distribution service. It is the largest Internet service provider in Canada, the second largest wireless service provider and the third largest television distributor. The acquisition of Astral Media’s services would have created a situation where a company of BCE’s size and scale would be able to exert its market power unfairly and hinder healthy competition.
The CRTC also denied BCE’s application to convert CKGM Montréal from an English- to a French-language station. BCE indicated that it was only interested in changing the station’s language format if its acquisition of Astral Media were approved.
Today’s decision follows a public proceeding, which included a public hearing held from September 10 to 14, 2012.
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