Telus accuses Rogers of anticompetitive motivation in blocking its ads

Telus Corp. is accusing Rogers Communications Inc. of blocking it from advertising its telecom services on Rogers’ radio and TV stations to protect its own business. Telus alleges in a Part 1 application with the CRTC, dated June 9 and released publicly by the regulator on Sept. 9, that after “decades” of purchasing advertising inventory from Rogers, its requests for two advertising campaigns on Rogers’ radio stations in November 2024 were denied “on extremely short notice.” The problem has bubbled up in the wake of two developments, according to Telus: after Rogers’ acquisition of Shaw Communications Inc., and after Telus began using the CRTC’s mandated wholesale access regime to “expand aggressively” into eastern Canada. “Telus and Rogers now compete for customers across nearly all telecommunications and broadcasting services almost everywhere in the country. In short, Telus is now not just a customer of Rogers, but also Rogers’ strongest competitor nationwide,” Telus wrote. READ MORE: - Telus happy, others upset by Joly decision upholding incumbent access to wholesale internet The western telecom noted the pre-holiday shopping season in November “is generally the most important sales season of the year for communications companies,” and alleges Rogers was trying to “weaken” Telus as a competitor. The company intended to run two Black Friday and Cyber Monday radio ads on Rogers stations. For one campaign, Telus planned for it to run from Nov. 12 to Dec. 1, 2024 and booked space with Rogers for that time, “but Rogers pulled the campaign on Nov. 14,” Telus alleges. According to Telus, Rogers did not give reasons for why it refused the campaigns. “However, as a result, Rogers enjoyed exclusive-to-Rogers advertising leading up to Black Friday on all its radio stations. Rogers therefore had an undue preference in reaching consumers during the most important sales period of the year,” Telus argues. Telus says Rogers told it in January 2025, while allegedly cancelling another ad on short notice, that “Telus and other telecommunications companies were prohibited from advertising on all of Rogers’ platforms.” It says Rogers changed its position in February to accept Telus’ ads on its news and entertainment stations and sites, with the exception of NHL broadcasts. “The timing again benefitted Rogers. Starting in February, consumer spend typically dips relative to other periods of the year. Rejecting Telus Group ads during the crucial run-up to the holiday period and accepting them again during one of the lowest consumer spend periods shows Rogers’ intent to harm Telus,” it alleges. “Rogers’ anticompetitive motivation for the condition is obvious,” Telus argues. “Consider Rogers’ public disclosure, which states that it competes in the wireless segment on ‘customer experience, price, quality of service, scope of services, network coverage, sophistication of wireless technology, breadth of distribution, selection of devices, branding and positioning.’ “By blocking Telus from making claims about the strength of its wireless services in any of those aspects, Rogers intends to stifle Telus’ ability to reach consumers and inform them of the key differentiators of its services,” Telus alleges. Later in its application, Telus says that Rogers pulled an ad for Telus’ PureFibre service from a Calgary Flames broadcast, and that it “did so on the grounds that it had the authority to remove content deemed damaging to its company.” A spokesperson of the Rogers parent company directed The Wire Report to Rogers Sports & Media for comment on Telus’ filing. “Telus has displayed a pattern of creating advertising that is inaccurate, misleading, and clearly intended to negatively impact the Rogers brand, products, and reputation, despite repeated requests to address these concerns,” reads a statement from a Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson. “This is contrary to Rogers Sports & Media’s advertising policies and content standards, which include the discretion to reject ads that are intended to defame the company or negatively impact the company’s brand. We are reviewing the application and will respond as part of the CRTC process,” it says. Citing a Competition Bureau study from 2016, Telus says research has shown that advertising is “critical” for allowing new market entrants to alert customers to their offerings. Without action from the CRTC, Telus says it fears Rogers “will have unchecked power to increase its dominance, leading to higher prices, to the detriment of Canadians.” It was looking for an expedited decision from the commission, asking that a decision be made by the end of July, ahead of the back-to-school shopping season. Amongst its asks of the regulator, Telus wants the CRTC to amend the Radio Regulations to include an undue preference prohibition, which says licensees will not give anyone undue preference, including themselves, or subject anyone to undue disadvantage. Going further, it wants an order that amends the licence conditions for Rogers’ radio programming undertakings “to provide commercially reasonable access to advertising availabilities to unrelated operators of broadcasting undertakings and telecommunications service providers.” “If such prohibitions existed, the Rogers conduct described in this application would surely violate them,” Telus wrote. Telus also wants the commission to declare Rogers has granted itself undue preference and subjected Telus to disadvantage in addition to an order requiring Rogers to “immediately grant Telus commercially reasonable access to its advertising inventory across all programming and online undertakings.” “The breadth and unique aspects of Rogers’ advertising inventory mean that Telus has few effective alternatives to advertise its services to Canadians,” Telus wrote. hdaley@thewirereport.ca

Telus accuses Rogers of anticompetitive motivation in blocking its ads

Regulatory |
By Hannah Daley
| September 10, 2025

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Telus accuses Rogers of anticompetitive motivation in blocking its ads

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