Bell asks CRTC to dismiss PIAC’s CraveTV complaint

BCE Inc. is asking the CRTC to dismiss a “frivolous and vexatious” Feb. 6 complaint from the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) against the company’s CraveTV service, arguing that the case has no chance of success and that the regulator has made such streaming services exempt from oversight. PIAC should be “well aware” that the CRTC has no power to dictate the business model for streaming services, Bell said in a Friday letter, adding that the group is “effectively asking the Commission to substitute their business judgment for Bell Media's as to how to distribute an innovative and popular new service.” CraveTV is offered to those who subscribe to TV service from Bell, Telus Corp., Northwestel Inc. and Eastlink, among others. PIAC also filed a similar complaint on Feb. 6 about the Shomi streaming service from Rogers Communications Inc. and Shaw Communications Inc. In its complaints, PIAC said the CRTC should require Rogers and Shaw to make Shomi available to all Canadians with Internet access, regardless of their Internet or TV service provider. It said the CRTC should require Bell to apply for a licence for CraveTV, or if it determines CraveTV can operate under the digital media exemption order, to “confirm that tied selling of online streaming services with BDU services is a violation of the exclusivity rules.” PIAC claims Shomi and CraveTV violate both the Telecommunications Act and the Broadcasting Act’s broadcast distribution regulations and rules around vertical integration, as well as the digital media exemption order. In the Friday letter, Bell called the complaint an “abuse of process,” and said PIAC itself has already “effectively admitted that there is no legal basis for the complaint” in the original application because the group suggested in its initial filing that CraveTV is “operating between the contours” of the two acts governing the CRTC’s powers. None of the CRTC’s powers as laid out in the Broadcasting Act “even remotely contemplates” the possibility of the CRTC dictating the distribution model for online streaming services, Bell said. In the event that the complaint is not dismissed, Bell asked for a deadline extension for replies of 30 days after the commission issues its decision on the dismissal. “It's ironic that Bell is complaining of abuse of process but is abusing the CRTC process to attempt to dismiss an obviously serious attempt to clarify the appropriate regulation of their services under the Telecom and Broadcasting acts,” PIAC executive director John Lawford said in a Friday email. Telus also sent a letter to the CRTC Friday, asking the commission to either close the file or return the application to PIAC “in order for deficiencies to be remedied.” Telus said it made the request because PIAC’s application “is primarily based on unsubstantiated allegations and arguments, which although they can be proven false, create an undue burden on the Commission and respondents” and because it “consists mainly of arguments for amending the existing policies and rules and is thus incompatible with an allegation of undue preference.” In a separate press release Friday, Bell said it has reached distribution deals for CraveTV with regional TV providers Access Communications Co-operative, Nexicom Systems Inc., and Cable Cable. On Jan. 29, CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said it was “regrettable ... that English Canada still lacks a true Canadian Internet streaming video-on-demand service that does not require a cable subscription.” — With reporting by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Bell asks CRTC to dismiss PIAC’s CraveTV complaint

Broadcast | February 13, 2015

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Bell asks CRTC to dismiss PIAC’s CraveTV complaint

Broadcast | February 13, 2015

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