MONTREAL – Another day, another Quebecor-Bell dispute.
While Bell Media announced today a new bi-lingual Crave service – which includes its French-language pay-TV channel Super Écran – Vidéotron is calling the move “another anticompetitive maneuver by Bell.”
The Quebecor-owned cable company said in a press release Tuesday afternoon it “has been forced to discontinue on-demand access to Super Écran content for its customers,” and that “as of today. Bell is also blocking access to its Super Écran Go app… for Videotron customers who subscribe to Super Écran.
“Videotron is disappointed that Bell is again using its market dominance to place its main rival at a disadvantage, at the expense of consumers,” reads the release, which also said its customers will be getting an email today about the move – and gave instructions to Vidéotron customers on how to cancel their Super Écran subscription.
That’s not how things went down at all, said Bell. “As part of our bilingual Crave service announced today, we’re launching a new Super Écran product that features thousands of hours of new francophone content. The older Super Écran Go app has been discontinued so no one is being ‘blocked’,” said a Bell Media spokesperson in an emailed response to Cartt.ca’s questions on Videotron’s release.
“In fact, broadcast providers in Québec including Cogeco, Telus, Bell TV and others have already signed up to offer the new bilingual Crave including the new Super Écran product. It was also made available to Vidéotron but they chose not to offer it to their subscribers.”
Videotron’s Super Écran subscribers who want the new Crave, including the new Super Écran app all the content, can either contact one of the participating television service providers or simply subscribe directly at Crave.ca.
UPDATE, January 22: Quebec Superior Court has also agreed with Bell. In a decision made public today, a day after Videotron issued its press release, the court declined to stop the launch of the bilingual Crave service after Videotron had launched a lawsuit in late 2019 when it was informed by Bell that Super Ecran Go was to be deactivated (Bell says they told Videotron in August; Videotron says it was informed in October), asking the court to stop the launch of the new service and keep Super Ecran Go active.
The court said, among other things, Videotron could not claim, as it had in the court filing, that it had a contract with Bell for Super Ecran Go until June 2020, when Videotron had already ended that agreement on its own back in 2016. The court decision is actually dated January 20th.
“Quebecor was aware of our plans for months and we offered them access to the product, instead they actively tried to block the launch,” added a Bell spokesperson on Wednesday after the court decision. “Quebecor failed, which is good news for Quebec consumers because there are now thousands of hours of new Super Ecran and other francophone content available from Crave and most Quebec TV providers. Videotron is of course still welcome to sign up too.”
