BCE issues request to cabinet; plans to re-file Astral application

BCE Inc. filed a formal request to the federal cabinet, asking it to issue a government policy direction to the CRTC as part of the company's plan to re-file a regulatory application to acquire Astral Media Inc. Bell filed the formal request Monday, asking cabinet to direct the commission to abide by its 2008 diversity of voices policy guidelines, which outline acceptable television viewership levels concentrated under one owner. The CRTC last week denied Bell's proposal to acquire Astral for $3.38 billion, saying the purchase would give Bell too much market power, reduce competition, and that it was not in the public interest. According to the request, Bell asked the federal cabinet to instruct the CRTC to consider other policy measures related to the commission's vertical integration framework, common ownership policy for radio, and benefits policy for broadcasting acquisitions. “An immediate policy direction is necessary in order to restore regulatory certainty and credibility to the Canadian broadcasting system,” Bell said in the request to cabinet. “Ultimately and in short time, without such certainty and credibility, stakeholders—including most certainly consumers and those financially invested in Canada’s communications sector—will lose confidence in the ability of the Commission and other public institutions to act in the public interest, resulting in an exodus of capital and stifling Canada’s ambitions as a leader in the new digital economy,” the company said. Bell added in a news release Monday that when the CRTC announced a Bell-Astral hearing on July 10, the commission said it would “follow the Diversity of Voices policy, issued by the commission in 2008 to guide the evaluation of broadcasting acquisitions.” The release said the commission ignored those rules and created “new criteria and metrics not included in any of its existing policies and never used before.” Bell said a lack of “clarity and consistency” in the Astral decision has created uncertainty for investors and companies in Canada’s broadcasting sector. In its request to cabinet, Bell attached the wording of a proposed policy direction to the CRTC that referred to “the public interest,” a key message of CRTC chair Jean-Pierre Blais when he announced the decision last week. Bell's proposed wording for the policy direction said “it is necessary and in the public interest for the CRTC to ensure the continuing integrity of the Canadian broadcasting system through the consistent application of the CRTC Policies to all applications for approval of changes in ownership of broadcasting undertakings.” Bell said the policy direction is also necessary to remove perceptions of bias in the CRTC process. CRTC officials held “several meetings” with cable companies opposed to the Bell-Astral transaction in the days before and after a public hearing on the transaction in September, Bell said in the release. “Bell was denied the opportunity for such meetings,” the release said. In a release issued Friday, BCE said that, after “the CRTC has been directed to follow its Diversity of Voices policy when reviewing change of control transactions, Bell will re-file its application to acquire Astral." In response to a question last week about whether BCE could re-apply with a modified application, CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais said the CRTC looks at all applications that come before it and cautioned any applicant to carefully review the decision. The CRTC decision on Astral cited the public interest and Bell's market power in Canada, and noted that the diversity of voices policy was not the only consideration at play. “The Commission considers that convergence, integration and scale may lead to a point at which the size of an entity on a national level becomes so large that it hinders effective and healthy competition among Canadian broadcasters,” the decision said. Industry Minister Christian Paradis said last week the government respects the CRTC decision. "I understand that they held hearings and they made their decision so at that point I will no longer comment since the decision is still there," Paradis told The Canadian Press in Montreal. "Bell, I don't know what they will do, but the decision was clear in terms of a conclusion, and we do respect what the CRTC said on this regard." The federal cabinet cannot overturn the CRTC decision because no broadcasting licence was issued. news@thewirereport.ca

BCE issues request to cabinet; plans to re-file Astral application

News | 10/22/2012 9:44 pm EDT

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