CRTC tells Videotron it can drop Avis de recherche

Media | 03/03/2016 10:09 pm EST

The CRTC decided Thursday Quebecor Inc.’s Videotron no longer has to distribute ADR.TV, known as Avis de recherche, and that Videotron did not give itself an undue preference by dropping the channel while continuing to distribute the Quebecor-owned Le Canal Nouvelles (LCN).  The CRTC said Videotron is not obligated to carry ADR, a 24-hour channel that provides police bulletins on missing people and suspects at large, and “merely the fact that a distributor ceases to distribute a discretionary service while continuing to distribute other services is not enough to establish...

ADR complaint against Bell dismissed

telecom | 02/04/2016 10:20 pm EST

The CRTC threw out a complaint by a Quebec TV station accusing BCE Inc. of several regulatory violations, including giving itself an undue preference, after Bell said it would stop distributing the channel focused on public-safety and police-related information. ADR.TV (Avis de recherche) filed the complaint last fall and said that by not carrying ADR, Bell was giving an undue preference to its Canal D/Investigation channel. In the ruling posted on the CRTC's website on Thursday, the commission agreed with Bell that the two channels offered different services (public information versus...