Bell must pay $433k in ‘ineligible’ tangible benefits

The CRTC has dismissed an appeal by BCE Inc. and ordered it to pay nearly half a million dollars in tangible benefits an audit found was ineligible for a music festival headlined by a non-Canadian singer four years ago. The regulator said Monday that Bell must pay $433,120 by Jan. 16, 2019, an amount from funds set aside for the development of Canadian programming, resulting from broadcasting-related acquisitions. Bell committed to over $500 million in these tangible benefits resulting from four deals from 2007 to 2013, in which it acquired Astral Media. In May 2017, the CRTC told Bell in a letter that an audit of the company’s books showed that it had spent the funds on ineligible initiatives during the 2013-14 year. Specifically, it pointed to the $493.9 million it spent on the FanFest event at the Canadian Music Week festival, with money going toward headliner and English artist Ellie Goulding’s talent fee and travel expenses. Those expenses were not appropriate Canadian content development (CCD) costs and the commission charged that Bell was not transparent in how the money was eligible and how it distributed tickets for the event. Bell filed a Part 1 application in October 2017 to reverse the decision. It argued that it wasn’t given the opportunity to address certain issues, while on others it provided the CRTC with the appropriate information, including eligibility. It also acknowledged that funding to Goulding was ineligible, but that expense would only be $126,672.19, which it said should be offset by the fact that it spent just north of $60,000 more on the event than the $570,989.32 it initially directed. Bell, as a result, said the shortfall it had to pay for the event was $60,772.54, which was paid with another outstanding amount by the September 2017 deadline. But the CRTC said to be eligible for tangible benefits spending, events like concerts must “maximize the exposure of the artists by being open to the general public, and not be limited to winners of station contests, ‘loyal listeners’ and/or clients of the station,” adding promotional material should be a minor component. The commission found that 675 of the 2,703 tickets to the event were not available to the general public because it was either won on radio or went to industry guests. It also found the company may have been able to “leverage” Goulding for its promotional and marketing purposes. Those findings led to the CRTC dismissing as ineligible the entirety of the funds.

Bell must pay $433k in ‘ineligible’ tangible benefits

Brief | December 18, 2018

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Bell must pay $433k in ‘ineligible’ tangible benefits

Brief | December 18, 2018

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