OTTAWA – The CBC says it's “fiercely opposed” to BCE’s proposal to double the amount of its tangible benefits package to create a new Category C French language national news service, calling it an “abuse of process” and an “extraordinary attempt to undermine competition.”
The CBC contends that BCE's proposed change to its tangible benefits package from its proposed purchase of Astral Media was made without notice to the commission or interveners, or to other interested parties such as the CBC, which might have intervened if the proposal had been included in BCE’s original application. [Editor’s note: Of the dozens of interveners who did appear at the week-long hearing, none mentioned BCE’s French-language news service proposal].
“As such, BCE's proposal is an affront to the commission, an abuse of the commission's procedures and a breach of natural justice which prejudices the rights of interveners, CBC/Radio-Canada and other interested parties,” writes CBC’s Kirshenblatt, Senior Director, Regulatory Affair in an electronic submission to John Traversy, Secretary General of the CRTC.
In order to preserve the “integrity of its procedures” and to ensure “clarity for all parties and to preserve the efficiency of the commission's process” the CRTC should immediately reject BCE's proposed change urges Kirshenblatt.
“No party has ever before suggested that benefits monies should be used to subsidize the launch of a totally new broadcasting service – let alone a service in a category that the commission has classified as competitive and made subject to open entry with uniform conditions of licence” writes Kirshenblatt.
She adds that it would be “grossly inappropriate to tilt the playing field in favour of BCE – the largest communications company in Canada – by allowing it to use benefits monies to subsidize the launch of a new French language news service.”
The CBC claims no other Category C news service has ever been subsidized in the manner proposed by BCE and notes that CBC/Radio-Canada has been expressly precluded by the commission from using parliamentary appropriations to finance its French and English language news services.
“Every other broadcaster who wishes to operate a Category C news service must meet the economics of the market. But BCE believes it should be entitled to a market-distorting subsidy. Why? Because it is the largest communications company in Canada?” writes Kirshenblatt.
The CBC contends that BCE would leverage its dominant position to its own advantage and to the disadvantage of existing services and other potential startups.
“This would be true even if BCE paid the full cost of launching such a service. If the commission were to allow BCE to subsidize the launch of such a service using tangible benefits monies this would only add insult to injury; impairing and undermining competition even further. The commission must not permit this to happen.”
Kirshenblatt concluded that “numerous interveners” have argued that the proposed acquisition of Astral by BCE raises major concerns about media concentration. And therefore it would be “bizarre to compound those concerns by permitting BCE to use benefits monies to subsidize the launch of a new service which would further enhance BCE's dominance of the market.”
