Cogeco says its carriage fees with Bell Media rose 37% from previous agreement

MONTREAL—The “horse trading” of content and channel carriage rights between large, vertically integrated broadcast companies increases wholesale carriage fees for independent distributors, putting them at a competitive disadvantage, Cogeco Cable Inc. executives told CRTC commissioners.

Company executives, appearing at a CRTC hearing Wednesday, said Cogeco’s carriage agreement with Bell Media, when renewed last year, rose 37 per cent from the previous multi-year deal.

Greenberg requested meeting with Harper following Bell-Astral decision

Astral Media Inc. president and CEO Ian Greenberg requested—and did not receive—a personal meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the CRTC’s decision last fall to reject BCE Inc.’s $3.38-billion deal for Astral, letters show.

Rogers would look at buying TMN, urges CRTC to order Bell to divest the channel

MONTREAL—Wireless and TV provider Rogers Communications Inc. told CRTC commissioners that the regulator should order BCE Inc. to divest popular pay TV channel The Movie Network, with HBO, as part of its acquisition of Astral Media Inc.

And if the CRTC ordered the divestiture, Rogers said, it would be interested in purchasing the popular pay channel.

BCE stands by position on TSN Radio Montreal

As part of BCE Inc.’s deal for Astral Media Inc., the companies stand by their plan to sell or shut down Montreal radio station TSN Radio if the CRTC does not make an exception to its rule for radio market ownership, said Jacques Parisien, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Astral.

Bell will divest 10 English-language radio stations to meet the CRTC's ownership rules for radio market concentration as part of its bid to acquire Astral for $3.38 billion.

Competitors using Bell-Astral hearing to push for better distribution rates, BCE says

Broadcast distributors turned down BCE Inc.'s proposed deals to carry its content on online, mobile and video-on-demand platforms, Bell said, as the company accused competitors of coordinating their strategies in the CRTC's merger approval process to get lower distribution rates.

Independent distributors say Bell-Astral would receive 37% of their carriage fees

Independent broadcast distributors say BCE Inc. has not addressed the CRTC's concerns about market power resulting from an acquisition of Astral Media Inc. and that BCE's share of all carriage fees paid by independent distributors would rise from 29 to 37 per cent if the Astral deal goes through.

PIAC, consumer groups, oppose Bell-Astral deal

Five consumer and public interest groups told the CRTC they oppose BCE Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Astral Media Inc.

Bell-Astral benefits producers, consumers, Riley says

Astral Media Inc.'s acquisition by BCE Inc. will benefit independent producers by providing them with more opportunity and funding to create Canadian content, Astral president John Riley said.

At the Prime Time Conference in Ottawa Thursday hosted by the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA), Riley said the $3.38-billion deal will also benefit Canadian consumers, who will gain more choice for the programming they watch and on which platforms.

Bell to divest 12 Astral channels under Competition Bureau deal

BCE Inc.’s agreement with the Competition Bureau to sell off 12 pay and specialty channels as part of its proposed $3.38-billion acquisition of Astral Media Inc. is a “big step forward” for the deal, Mirko Bibic, Bell’s chief legal and regulatory officer, said in a television interview. 

Rogers says independent producers getting too much from terms of trade deal

TORONTO—Rogers Communications Inc.'s broadcast division is unhappy with the industry's terms of trade agreement with independent producers and will seek a bigger share of production revenues when the contract expires next year, said Keith Pelley, president of Rogers Media Inc.

New Bell-Astral application to be public in new year, sources say

The CRTC will publicly issue BCE Inc.'s reworked application to acquire Astral Media Inc. in the new year and will subsequently hold a public hearing to review the application, two people with knowledge of the application said.

Bell appeals to public for support for reworked Astral deal

BCE Inc. will court public opinion for support for a renewed application to acquire Astral Media Inc. by focusing on the benefits the deal can provide to local broadcasting, Mirko Bibic, the company’s chief legal and regulatory officer, said in an interview.

Bell, Astral close to new deal: report

BCE Inc. is nearing an agreement to acquire Astral Media Inc. under new conditions in the hopes of appeasing regulatory concerns that caused the CRTC to block its earlier $3.38 billion-bid for the company, the Globe and Mail reported Friday.

In a story that quoted sources familiar with the discussions, the Globe said the new deal could involve a plan to auction off some of Astral’s English-language broadcasting assets. One source said any auction would be contingent on the CRTC’s approval of the new deal first.

Regulators will not block Bell-Astral deal, industry sources predict

The Competition Bureau and the CRTC will not block BCE Inc.'s $3.38-billion acquisition of Astral Media Inc. and will seek concessions from the companies or put conditions on the deal, according to the predictions of six industry insiders and an analyst surveyed by The Wire Report.

Screens, not scale, key to competing with OTT providers, Rogers says

Consumer-friendly content distribution platforms are more important than scale to Canadian broadcasters and broadcast distributors competing against large, over-the-top (OTT) service providers like Netflix, Ken Engelhart, senior vice-president of regulatory affairs at Rogers Communications Inc., said Wednesday.

Astral purchase will bolster Canadian programming and infrastructure, Bell says

BCE Inc.’s intended $3.38-billion acquisition of Astral Media Inc. will protect Canadian content producers from increasingly competitive online, foreign services that are not bound by Canadian content requirements, George Cope, Bell’s president and CEO, said during the first day of a CRTC hearing into the deal Monday.

CRTC numbers point to careful examination of Bell-Astral deal, competitors say

Annual broadcast industry data released by the CRTC “confirms” that BCE Inc.’s bid to acquire Astral Media Inc. would put the company’s English-language TV audience share “well over the CRTC’s threshold for concern,” a coalition of Bell’s competitors who oppose the deal said Tuesday.

Bell, Quebecor scheduled for first day of Astral hearing

BCE Inc., Quebecor Media Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. are scheduled to appear before CRTC commissioners on the first day of a five-day hearing to determine the fate of Bell’s $3.38-billion acquisition of Astral Media Inc.

Consumer groups campaign against Bell-Astral deal

The Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) and advocacy group OpenMedia.ca formed a “broad-based coalition of groups” to oppose BCE Inc.’s $3.38 billion bid to acquire Astral Media Inc., the groups said Tuesday.

In a release, PIAC and OpenMedia said the new “Stop the Takeover Coalition” aims to “draw public attention to the risks of Bell’s expansion,” which they said would give the company a share of the Canadian broadcasting market “that would be more than twice that of its largest competitor.”

Distributors raise alarm over BCE-Astral interventions

Quebecor Media Inc., Cogeco Cable Inc. and Eastlink, a Bragg Communications Inc. subsidiary, asked Heritage Minister James Moore to throw out CRTC interventions from Telefilm Canada and an RCMP detachment that supported BCE Inc.’s proposed acquisition of Astral Media Inc.

Bell says Astral deal will benefit Quebec

BCE Inc.’s $3.38 billion bid to acquire Astral Media Inc., will drive broadcasting investment, innovation and choice in the province of Quebec, Bell said in a press release Wednesday.

Bell competitors launch online campaign against Astral acquisition