Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE) and Astral Media made headlines in 2012 when the two firms were in talks for a billion dollar deal in which BCE would purchase the later. However, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) had considerable concerns about the deal which many believed would stifle competition. The original deal ended up being rejected last year. The BCE revamped the proposal to take into account the CRTC’s concerns and submitted a $3.4 Billion deal for authorities to review. The deal ended up being approved last week by the Competition Bureau and is headed to the CRTC again. The hearings will be held on May 6 and BCE is looking to head off any issues to the proposed deal this time around and has made public a plan for a $174.64-million tangible benefits package. The Canadian business hopes this will help its case with the CRTC.
The approval from the Competition Bureau for the billion dollar deal came with the condition that asks that Astral sell off some of its pay and specialty TV channels before BCE takes over. If the deal goes through as it stands right now, BCE will pay $3.38-billion and get to keep eight channels from Astral including the Movie Network, HBO Canada, TMN Encor, French-language SuperEcran, CinePop, Canal Vie, Canal D, VRAK TV, and Z Tele.
The Competition Bureau claimed that by selling off the pay and specialty television channels the possibility of increased prices and reduction of choice has been significantly removed.
When the redone deal was submitted , Bell’s chief regulatory officer Mirko Bibic stated that, ” The proposal that we filed today will address the issue of viewing shares from the CRTC’s perspective. It’s putting a package together that addresses the mechanical, numerical threshold the way the CRTC calculates it.”
He also added at the time that, “The reason we filed again is we’re confident we’ve addressed the concerns of the CRTC as we understand them.”
Source: CTV News
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