OTTAWA – The CRTC has dismissed a complaint filed by former-Astral Media against Videotron which alleged that Videotron's illico Club Unlimited service unfairly competes with Astral's (now Bell Media's) Super Ecran network.
In its decision the CRTC disagreed with Astral's argument that Illico Club, launched by Videotron in February, had violated the regulatory framework and certain conditions of Videotron?'s video on demand licence.
The condition in question states that a licensee is prohibited from offering a Canadian SVOD package that is directly competitive with a genre-protected Canadian linear pay or specialty service, unless the package is an on-demand extension of this Canadian linear pay or specialty service.
As a general interest pay television Category A service, Super Écran may draw its programming from all program categories, except for news, religion, formal and informal education, and infomercials. At least 50% of its schedule must include drama and comedy programming.
The Commission had set a precedent in an earlier notice of consultation, where it had noted that ?there exists a significant repertoire of quality content that is not currently broadcast by Super Écran and that could allow a second general interest pay television service to support itself and add diversity for the consumer,? provided that it was complementary rather than directly competitive with Super Écran.
"In doing so, the Commission took the position that a pay television service providing programming outside of Super Écran?s broadcast window could be considered as not directly competitive. Even if the current programming does not guarantee future programming, the Commission notes that there is currently no overlap between the programming offered by Super Écran and Illico Club," the CRTC said. ?
"We are gratified that we were able to show the Commission that the catalogue we are offering illico Club Unlimited subscribers does not breach any of the conditions of our video on demand licence,? said Manon Brouillette, president and COO of Videotron, in a statement. ?At the same time, we were able to demonstrate that Astral?s motive in filing this complaint was to prevent any competition in order to safeguard and even expand its historic pay-TV monopoly. The decision also recognizes Videotron?s leadership in entertainment and its benefits for consumers.
