CRTC tells Federal Court TVA info request akin to ‘fishing’

The CRTC is objecting to a document-collection request Quebecor Inc. is making in Federal Court as part of its appeal of a decision by the regulator to force the company to continue to allow BCE Inc. to broadcast its sports channel. On April 10, on the first night of the NHL playoffs, Quebecor’s TVA Sports signal was pulled from Bell’s TV service as part of a dispute in which the former says it is unfairly compensated by the latter for broadcasting the channel. After Bell obtained a court order against Quebecor -- and subsequently sued Quebecor -- the CRTC forced the channel back in Bell’s rotation after an emergency hearing on the matter a week later. In its notice of appeal of the CRTC order -- which was granted in June by the Federal Court of Appeal and partly argues the commission has no jurisdiction over economic relationships or affiliation agreements between TV providers and individual channels -- Quebecor asked the CRTC to fork over additional information related to its April decisions, including what the regulator relied upon to come to its conclusions as well as directions, policies, notes and internal documents explaining the decision to maintain the status quo rule as prescribed in the Broadcasting Act. On Friday, the CRTC responded and objected to that request in a letter delivered to the court. In the letter, the CRTC said it has in its possession three documents that Quebecor does not have -- much of which is protected by confidentiality. Those documents include a memo and a note prepared by CRTC staff and an exchange of emails between members of the hearing panel and CRTC legal staff justifying the proceeding that culminated into an urgent hearing and swift next-day decision of non-compliance against Quebecor. “The CRTC objects to the transmission of these three documents as they are protected by the privilege of the secrecy of the deliberations as well as by the solicitor-client privilege,” the French-language letter read, raising its right under Federal Court rules to object to such a request. The party bringing forward such a proceeding has a right under the law to ask for relevant information not in its possession. But the CRTC is also arguing that a chunk of the information Quebecor is asking for did not make up part of the regulator’s record of the decision. “The request is vague and imprecise and is similar to a fishing trip,” the CRTC said. Lawyers for both sides said they could not comment on the matter. Counsel representing the CRTC was asked why they need the information, while counsel to Quebecor was asked if they would challenge the objection. Quebecor believes that the wholesale rate its TVA Sports channel receives is undervalued compared to Bell’s counterpart RDS channel. The two companies signed the original distribution agreement in November 2011. Since then, the companies amended the agreement four times but have not agreed on a new rate for TVA Sports, according to Quebecor’s appeal. The last time the companies had a dispute over price, the CRTC chose Bell’s offer for TVA during final arbitration. That price, TVA has argued since, is lower than the funding required to support the channel, while the status quo rule has imposed on the company the maintenance of a contractual obligation it wants nothing to do with, it alleges. Its inability to argue a fair price for its own copyrighted material, Quebecor argues, has forced it to explore the full extent of how the CRTC came to the decisions it made in April. — With reporting by Ahmad Hathout at ahathout@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

CRTC tells Federal Court TVA info request akin to ‘fishing’

Broadcast | September 18, 2019

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CRTC tells Federal Court TVA info request akin to ‘fishing’

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