OTTAWA – The CRTC has ruled that Bell’s offer relating to the distribution of French-language sports service TVA Sports is “more reasonable” than the offer proposed by the channel’s parent Quebecor Media.
Once their own negotiations reached an impasse, Quebecor Media and Bell asked the Commission last September to initiate a final offer arbitration process on the per-subscriber wholesale rates for the distribution of TVA Sports in the francophone market, defined as the province of Quebec.
After hearing final offers from both companies, the CRTC said Wednesday that it selected Bell’s offer after finding that the evidence does not support the rate increase proposed by Quebecor after taking into account the relevant factors relating to fair market value and public policy objectives.
“… the Commission finds that Bell’s offer is more reasonable when examining historical rates together with viewership trends and programming expenditures, as well as in terms of the rates paid for services of similar value to subscribers”, reads the decision. “Although it finds that Quebecor’s offer is more reasonable in terms of the fair market value factor relating to volume discounts and the rates paid by other unaffiliated BDUs, the Commission considers that these factors are less probative given that no other BDU is comparable in size to Bell in Quebec.”
