OTTAWA – The CRTC today dismissed an undue preference and undue disadvantage complaint from Telus against TLN Media Group.
The complaint was made in July 2020. Telus was seeking to distribute some of TLN Media Group’s third-language services, however, “the parties have been engaging in challenging negotiations,” the CRTC’s decision says.
Under the Broadcasting Distribution Regulations, Telus must carry one Canadian third-language service for every non-Canadian third-language service it offers. If possible, the services are supposed to be in the same principal language.
Telus previously carried TLN, which had Italian-language programming, to meet this requirement, however the programming service became an English-language service over time and no longer counted towards Telus meeting its Canadian third-language service obligations, the CRTC’s decision explains.
Telus decided to stop distributing the TLN programming service, after which it began to negotiate to carry TLN Media Group third-language services including Mediaset Italia.
Telus was not satisfied with TLN Media Group’s “proposals for a wholesale rate for the programming service Mediaset,” the CRTC’s decision says, and TLN Media Group has been looking to relaunch its flagship TLN programming service on Telus “by making rate offers for Mediaset that would incent the carriage of TLN.”
The Commission found the dispute between the two organizations “relates primarily to an impasse in contractual negotiations,” according to the decision. “The Commission considers that the undue preference framework is not the appropriate vehicle through which to address such an impasse.”
The CRTC also dismissed a complaint from Telus that alleged TLN Media Group was in breach of the Wholesale Code.
“We are grateful for today’s CRTC Decision. And we remain willing to make the “Mediaset Italia Canada” channel available to Telus on commercially reasonable terms, something we have pursued for over a decade,” said Aldo Di Felice, president of TLN Media Group in a statement emailed to Cartt.ca.
“We would also welcome the opportunity of re-launching our flagship TLN-TV channel on Telus, which was removed from their system thereby denying thousands of subscribers access to the service. As of today, Telus remains the only major BDU in Canada that doesn’t offer TLN-TV.”
Telus did not respond to a request for comment.
