Radio / Television News

Bell/Astral II: It’s not any better this time as Rogers, Telus, tell of Bell withholding content

MONTREAL – Interveners told the CRTC Tuesday that just because Bell Canada has decided it will spin off a few TV assets with this latest attempt to purchase Astral Media, that doesn’t make the deal any better for Canadians, or for them. “This second application raises the very same concerns in the English-language television market,” Rogers SVP regulatory Ken Engelhart told commissioners on Tuesday morning. “The acquisition of Astral’s premium pay television services will threaten diversity and endanger the ability of distributors to deliver programming to Canadians at affordable rates and on reasonable terms on multiple platforms. So for Rogers,...