MONTREAL – Bell has confirmed it will ask the federal Cabinet to intervene regarding the CRTC's “shocking decision to completely ignore its own rules and policies in rejecting in its entirety Bell's acquisition of Astral Media.”
The telecom will file a request that Cabinet issue a policy direction to the CRTC under Section 7 of the Broadcasting Act, requiring the Commission to “follow its already in-place policies when reviewing change of control transactions in broadcasting.”
"The Broadcasting Act explicitly empowers the Cabinet to issue directions to the CRTC on broad policy matters," said Mirko Bibic, Bell's Chief Legal and Regulatory Officer. "A commission that relies on a 35-year-old working paper to justify rejecting outright the Astral deal, rather than its own policy established in 2008, clearly needs guidance on the broadest of policy matters."
Bell maintains its proposed acquisition of Astral was guided by, and complies with, the CRTC's 2008 Diversity of Voices regulatory policy, which specifically stated that it would approve broadcasting transactions resulting in a company controlling less than 35% of total TV audience share. Bell and Astral combined would have an English-language TV market share of 33.5%, and just 24.4% of the French-language TV market, both well within the rules.
Yet the CRTC's decision instead quotes a working paper from 1978, a single application from 1986 and a 1989 public notice to justify its rejection of the Bell-Astral transaction in 2012 argues Bell. It adds that such “unpredictable and arbitrary decision-making leaves Canadian businesses with little confidence in the policy framework they rely on to make investment decisions.”
"It sets a dangerous precedent if government agencies are left to pick and choose the rules they follow, with many potential consequences not just for the broadcasting industry but for the Canadian financial system and indeed all Canadians," said Bibic. "Under the circumstances, it is incumbent on those we elect to ensure that agencies they oversee exercise the power available to them appropriately."
On Monday, October 22, Bell will submit to the Cabinet a formal request that it expeditiously issue a policy direction to the CRTC under Section 7 of the Broadcasting Act. Bell says that once the CRTC has been directed to follow its Diversity of Voices policy when reviewing change of control transactions, it will re-file its application to acquire Astral.
