Licence renewal: Bell misused community TV funding for “self-serving practices,” CRTC rules

Must pay nearly $18 million to production funds By Steve Faguy MONTREAL — Bell Canada "misallocated" millions of dollars of funding for Canadian programming and failed to meet its obligations to community television programming by using much of its required funding for community TV on shows that clearly furthered Bell Media's commercial interests, the CRTC announced in a lengthy (26,632-word) decision rendered on Thursday. The performance of Bell's community television was reviewed as part of its Fibe TV licence renewal, the company’s IPTV network in Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, and as a result of the violations, Bell has been...