MONTREAL – An advocacy group led by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) told the CRTC today it should reject a second attempt at a Bell-Astral merger because it would further erode competition in the Canadian media market that’s already dominated by a select few large players.
PIAC made the comments before the Commission as part of a week-long hearing examining the proposed merger, representing the Consumers’ Association of Canada (CAC), the Council of Senior Citizens’ Organization of British Columbia (COSCO), the National Pensioners and Senior Citizens Federation (NPSCF), and Option consommateurs.
The group noted that the proposed transaction, if approved, would allow Bell to control 59.2% of revenues in the French-language pay and specialty television market.
“Consumers deserve a highly competitive market with a diversity of voices and further media concentration will not provide more vigorous competition that benefits Canadian consumers,” said Janet Lo, PIAC counsel, in a prepared release. “In our view, the market is not meeting the consumer expectation for choice, flexibility and affordability and Bell does not promise to meet these needs through this transaction.”
With the costs for television services rising at a higher rate than the consumer price index (CPI), the advocacy group warns that the merger would further reduce consumer choice and flexibility to buy the services that they want.
