MONTREAL – Two weeks ago, Cartt.ca reported Québecor had complained to the CRTC alleging undue preference in Bell TV’s treatment of TVA Sports.
Tuesday, Bell filed its answer, saying it was not a valid complaint since, among other things, negotiations were under way to set affiliation agreements for the next few years.
Most complaints would not warrant coverage such as this but it comes at a time of heightened tension between Québecor and Bell that has resulted in Québecor pulling TVA Sports from Bell TV (despite repeated CRTC warnings not to do so), depriving Bell’s subscribers of French-language NHL playoff coverage. Games are still available on CBC, of course, and Bell has taken the step of offering Sportsnet, Sportsnet 360 and Sportsnet One to customers for free so Bell TV hockey fans can at least see the action, but in English.
Cartt.ca has written a few stories in the last few days on the subject and you can read them here, here, here, here, here and here.
The most recent reply, beyond providing Bell’s arguments, gives us a little more background on this unfolding drama.
For example, Bell states that: “Over the last nine months, QMI and BCE… have been engaged in a four-way negotiation as the various affiliation agreements between the parties expired within a year of one another. As regards TVA Sports, Bell TV tabled its initial offer to TVA on 24 August 2018, this being the agreed upon deadline. Nearly four months later, on 18 December 2018, TVA provided its counter-proposal to Bell TV.”
This means that TVA Sports is not the only channel being negotiated but also RDS/TSN carriage on Québecor’s own Vidéotron. So it is a very complex exercise involving many facets.
Bell goes on. “On 30 January 2019, QMI advised BCE that the parties needed to accelerate the pace of all the negotiations and arbitrarily set a deadline of 28 February 2019 in which to do so. The parties subsequently met on both 22 February 2019 and 27 February 2019 but QMI then advised within an hour of the conclusion of the last meeting of its intention to file both an undue preference claim and lawsuit. “
Finally, Bell said, “QMI has also filed a court action in Quebec, claiming for damages it asserts it has sustained as a result of being distributed by Bell TV in the Mieux package and not the Bon package. QMI is claiming approximately $20 million in lost subscriber and advertising revenue.”
Bell, of course, says there is no undue preference because among other reasons, the agreement in place was settled by the CRTC in a mandatory arbitration back in 2018, so it could hardly be now construed as undue preference.
In a interview with Cartt.ca on Wednesday, prior to TVA pulling its signal, Karine Moses, president of Bell Media Québec, reiterated that they see this as “a commercial business dispute between two big companies and unfortunately, Québecor has decided to take the sports fan as hostage… Today, the CRTC issued a final legally binding decision to prevent Québecor to pull their signal from Bell TV subscribers and they continue to threaten and clearly threatening to break the law.”
As for the options available now? “Everybody is all hands on deck and we are looking at all the options, of course, part of the options are legal options, we will see what happens tonight,” she said Wednesday afternoon. “Yes, the CRTC is one thing and cannot comment on all the legal tools of the CRTC,” she added.
“If they are pulling the signal, they are breaking the law and if they break the law, we will bring them to court. As for the business side of it, we are looking at all options possible to make sure that people will have access to the hockey game tonight. There are a lot of people working on it.”
On screen, Bell TV is telling its customers in French: “Quebecor, the owner of Videotron and TVA, is denying access to its TVA Sports channel to customers of Bell TV. This measure is illegal” while telling them of the available Sportsnets.
Moses would not comment on additional options and would not outline all of their strategic plan.
When Cartt.ca asked if they were thinking of pulling the TSN/RDS signals from Vidéotron in retaliation, she said “there were no such discussion and that is not the kind of game we want to play.”
Moses reiterated it is a commercial business dispute and there is a negotiation process in place and Bell does so in good faith and is ready to get back to the table and make this hockey fight go away.
“We have always been open to negotiations,” she added. “We never said that we do not want to negotiate. Our main focus is to deliver the best content, we want to get out of this dispute, “she concluded.
As indicated, the CRTC issued a letter stating that: “Withholding or otherwise interfering with signals by either party such that Canadians are prevented from enjoying the programming would amount to changing the terms of carriage. The Commission also advises parties that it is prepared to use the means at its disposal to enforce its regulations, including holding a hearing on an expedited basis to issue a mandatory order under section 12 of the Broadcasting Act.”
“Given the Commission’s statements that the standstill rule should not be invoked lightly, nor be relied upon to grant an effective access right, the parties are encouraged to continue to seek a bilateral resolution of their dispute as quickly as possible. Failing that, one or both parties may seek a Commission determination,” the letter went on.
Late Wednesday, Quebecor issued a statement which reads, in part: "After welcoming the proposal presented by the CRTC's mediation service this afternoon, Quebecor is disappointed that no agreement could be reached in negotiations between the parties, despite its strong desire to arrive at a solution that reflects the comparable stature of RDS and TVA Sports. Under the circumstances, Quebecor unfortunately has no alternative but to proceed with the withdrawal of TVA Sports' signal from Bell subscribers at 7 p.m. tonight. Quebecor regrets having to take this action, but given the current obsolete regulatory framework, the survival of specialty channels is at stake.
"Quebecor remains ready and willing to engage with all stakeholders in order to come to a fair and reasonable agreement and restore the TVA Sports signal."
We’ll see what happens at the CRTC, or in court, on Thursday morning.
