LET’S TALK TV (most of day three): Commission grills Bell on counting online revenues for CPE, and wholesale rate regime

By Perry Hoffman

GATINEAU - The biggest stir on the third day of the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV policy hearing centered on the possible inclusion of revenue earned from broadcasters’ online activities when calculating Canadian programming expenditures (CPE) Bell Canada arguing that it’s illogical, odd and added insult to injury.“Working document item 10 concerns us greatly,” said Mirko Bibic, Bell’s executive VP and chief legal and regulatory officer, adding that the proposal on the table “would treat Canadian licensees in that space differently than the Netflixes of the world.”That bit of the CRTC’s discussion document says: “The definition of broadcasting revenues for licensees...