OTTAWA – Will the CRTC approve the deal to let BCE Inc. take control of Astral Media? After weeks of speculation (and 15 months since its intitial bid for Astral was announced), that question will finally be answered Thursday, as the CRTC has confirmed it will release its decision about the Bell/Astral merger June 27, at 4 p.m.
Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Ottawa tomorrow at the media lock-up at 2:30 p.m. to view the decision just prior to its official release. CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais will address the media and answer questions shortly after 4 p.m. Watch for a story to be posted here (and, well, just about every other important media outlet) at about 4:00:01, give or take a few seconds…
Will the Commission once again deny Bell/Astral, or will it reverse its October 2012 decision? We’ll soon find out, although if Blais’s remarks in his speech to the 2013 Banff World Media Fest earlier this month is any indication, organizations like Veritas Investment Research are suggesting the verdict will be negative.
Then again, however, the overall industry consensus is that this iteration of the deal will certainly be approved. The new deal includes some important changes over the 2012 one, it was approved already by the Competition Bureau and Bell made concessions at the CRTC hearing. That leaves many people thinking a "yes" is on the menu tomorrow, including Corus Entertainment CEO John Cassaday, whose company is buying some of the Astral assets.
"I think the deal will get approved tomorrow afternoon," Cassaday said during the TD Securities Telecom and Media Forum. "I think it will get approved without any further divestitures (but) there is likely to be some regulatory added-value which will probably take the form of some kind of protection for small MSOs in Quebec who were concerned about the pricing power BCE would have.
"In the highly unlikely event (of denial), I think the egg has been scrambled and there would likely be another process," Cassaday continued. "But, I just find that unimaginable at this particular point in time… Having received approval of the Competition Bureau, it would seem to be a statement that is not warranted by the Regulator if they intervened again."
Check back at Cartt.ca for Greg’s coverage tomorrow afternoon. For the latest developments you can also follow Greg on Twitter at @gregobr.
