BCE says its non-sports rights fees rose less than inflation, or fell

BCE Inc. division Bell Media said broadcast distributors' wholesale fees for access to the company's non-sports programming fell or rose less than the rate of inflation when multi-year licensing agreements were last renewed. In final reply comments to the CRTC for the regulator's consultation on BCE's deal to purchase broadcast company Astral Media Inc. for $3.38 billion, Bell challenged competing broadcast distributors that had said BCE was asking for unreasonable rates to access its content. Executives with Cogeco Cable Inc. said at a CRTC hearing this month that its carriage agreement with Bell Media, when renewed last year, rose 37 per cent from the previous multi-year deal. BCE said in its reply document, filed with the CRTC May 21, that wholesale fees for its non-sports programming fell or rose by less than the rate of inflation. Sports programming fees rose, BCE said, and were “entirely driven by increased content costs” and absorbed in part by Bell. Scott Henderson, a spokesman for BCE, told The Wire Report in April that the rising costs of sports content rights are a concern for the company, “especially when revenue growth does not keep pace.” BCE said in the filing it has agreed to significant regulatory safeguards as part of the deal, related to independent production, tied selling, packaging flexibility, competitors' access to on-demand rights, and the timing of the CRTC's dispute resolution process, among other issues. The company said it questions “the sincerity” of Rogers Communications Inc.'s “last minute” interest in purchasing TSN Radio 690, or CKGM Montreal, to allow Bell to remain within the CRTC's radio market concentration rules for one owner. The company said Rogers has not contacted BCE about its proposal to purchase the station. Rogers also suggested during the hearing that the CRTC order BCE to divest "must have" Astral channels The Movie Network, TMN Encore, and HBO Canada, which BCE chief executive George Cope said would be going too far and would effectively kill the deal. The CRTC's hearing on BCE's reworked application to purchase Astral follows the regulator's rejection of the company's first application last September, when it ruled that the deal was not in the public interest. In March, BCE announced an agreement with the Competition Bureau to sell off 12 specialty channels, including Teletoon and Disney, with half of them going to Corus Entertainment Inc. The commission is expected to issue its decision on the reworked application in early summer. BCE and Astral's deadline to close the deal is June 1, and either company has the right to push it to July 31. —With reporting by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca and copy editing by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca

BCE says its non-sports rights fees rose less than inflation, or fell

News | May 22, 2013

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BCE says its non-sports rights fees rose less than inflation, or fell

News | May 22, 2013

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