Bell, Quebecor, exchange kinder words under new carriage agreement

Under a new agreement for BCE Inc. to carry Quebecor Media Inc.'s TVA Sports, Sun News, Yoopa and Mlle specialty channels, the competing companies are exchanging kinder words. In a release Tuesday, Groupe TVA said that the four TVA specialty channels will be offered to Bell subscribers by Dec. 15, 2011. “With this new agreement, all TVA Group channels—including TVA Sports and Sun News—will be available to Bell customers,” Pierre Dion, president and CEO of TVA, said in the release. “There’s no doubt that this important announcement makes viewers the big winners.” The agreement marks something of a broadcasting entente between the two competing companies. In previous interviews with The Wire Report, Quebecor had accused Bell of refusing to carry TVA's specialty channels for competitive reasons. Jacqueline Michelis, a spokeswoman for Bell, said in an interview Tuesday that TVA offers leading Quebec French-language content. “We’re eager to maximize the content we offer on Bell TV, particularly our fast-growing Fibe TV service,” she said. “This agreement underlines how well commercial content negotiations can work without the need for government intervention.” “These are complex deals and they take time,” Michelis said of the agreement. “But will be good to both offer and carry the best content available based on the best value in the marketplace.” She added that Bell is looking to expand its Quebec audience for its leading sports channel lineup through Vidéotron's carriage of RDS, RDS2, TSN and TSN2. Following the launch of TVA Sports in September, the company said its new sports channel could be successful without a carriage agreement with rival Bell. At the time, Dion told The Wire Report that no discussions had taken place with Bell about the new channel “because they completely ignore us.” Dion said he believed Bell was seeking to limit TVA Sports’ market entry and protect its RDS channel, which last year counted 133,000 viewers on Ottawa Senators’ regular season NHL games and an average of 797,000 viewers for Montreal Canadiens games. “You know Bell controls RDS, and RDS has been in a monopolistic situation in sports TV in Quebec since 1989,” he had said. “I have come to the conclusion that Bell TV is really trying to protect its RDS monopoly by not letting TVA Sports enter the market with their subscribers.” Dion also said that Bell had refused to carry TVA's Yoopa (a preschooler channel), Mlle (a women’s channel) and the Sun News Network. Bell spokeswoman Jacqueline Michelis told The Wire Report in September that the company was still in discussion and was hoping for a successful outcome to its negotiations with Quebecor. Richard Paradis, president of consulting firm CIC in Montreal, said in an interview Tuesday that the new agreement is a good decision for Groupe TVA. “Bell is becoming a fairly big player in terms of distributing television services in Quebec,” he said. He said that the agreement was probably delayed because Bell wanted to wait until it could get a better deal with TVA. Paradis said TVA Sports probably did not immediately appeal to Bell because Bell's RDS and TSN hold the coveted broadcast rights to Canadiens games. “Bell is fairly well-equipped with sports programming subscribers would want to have because they have RDS,” he said. Paradis added that RDS is generating almost the highest revenues of any specialty channel in Canada. “TVA has the rights to Senators games in Ottawa, but that’s nothing compared to Canadiens games.” Under the new agreement, Quebecor said TVA Sports will be available on channels 193 (SD) and 1883 (HD) on Bell Satellite TV, as well as on channels 193 (SD) and 1193 (HD) on Bell’s Fibe TV. The channel will be made available to viewers through a free preview until Dec. 31, 2011. Yoopa and Mlle will also be offered on Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV through a free, three-month preview, Quebecor said. In a release, Quebecor said Sun News will be offered on a basic package and will be available to all of Bell’s subscribers outside of Quebec. Quebecor subsidiary Vidéotron Ltée. also announced Tuesday that it will add the RDS2 sports channel to its illico TV channel line-up. In a release, Vidéotron said RDS2’s sports programming includes baseball, curling, American and Canadian football, as well as NASCAR races. Four new sports channels, RDS, RDS2, TSN and TSN2, will be also be made available on illico mobile in the next few weeks, the company said. dgrenier@thewirereport.ca

Bell, Quebecor, exchange kinder words under new carriage agreement

News | 11/23/2011 8:39 pm EST

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