OTTAWA – The CRTC has ruled that Videotron’s proposed rate increase for carriage of French-language sports services RDS and RDS2 is “more reasonable” than that proposed by the channels’ parent Bell Media.
Once their own negotiations stalled, Videotron and Bell Media asked the Commission in April to initiate a final offer arbitration process on the per-subscriber wholesale rate to be paid by Videotron to Bell for distribution of the two services in a linear programming package.
After hearing final offers from both companies, the CRTC said Tuesday that Videotron’s offer is “the better offer”, after taking into account the relevant factors relating to fair market value and public policy objectives. Under CRTC rules, the details of the two offers remain confidential for competitive reasons.
“…the Commission finds that Videotron’s proposed rate increase is more reasonable than Bell’s, given the decrease in viewership share of the RDS services since 2011”, reads the decision. “In addition, the Commission considers that Bell has not adequately demonstrated that its proposed rate increase is necessary given the increase in programming expenses.”
