Bell-Astral II: Companies fire back at critics

MONTREAL – In a joint announcement about their response to interventions filed with the CRTC about the proposed Bell-Astral merger, BCE and Astral Media dismissed the complaints of their competitors. Bell and Astral downplayed the concerns of its competitors, describing them as “large vertically integrated corporations” that compete directly with Bell, who contend that the merged company, if approved, would control too much of the market. In its release, Bell Media says that the two companies are merely “eager to inject fresh ideas, significant new investment, and more competition into Canadian media, especially in Québec.” Québec and the French-language media...