Op-Ed: Telus walking both sides of rhetorical divide as Bell-Astral hearing approaches

By Mirko Bibic

AS THE DEADLINE APPROACHES for submissions in the CRTC's hearing to examine our plan to unite Astral and Bell Media, competitors are already revving up their rhetoric. Last week in a blog post, Telus's director of regulatory affairs, Anne Mainville-Neeson, road-tested the company's lines on why "vertical integration in the broadcasting industry can be harmful.” This position conveniently overlooks the fact that the federal Competition Bureau has comprehensively reviewed and cleared the proposed Astral-Bell Media transaction, and that the CRTC is of course conducting its own comprehensive analysis. It also ignores the fact that the CRTC already has a very...