V buy would give Bell too much market share: PIAC, Quebecor

BCE Inc.’s proposed acquisition of French-language Groupe V Media Inc.’s conventional TV network V would exacerbate a “crisis” in local television and especially local news programming, would negatively impact competition, and “raise serious concerns about Bell’s exercise of market power,” according to an intervention by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre. The PIAC intervention comes ahead of the CRTC’s scheduled February 2020 hearing into Bell’s purchase of the channel, along with dozens of other interventions from across Quebec civil society and Bell’s competitors. In PIAC’s argument, Bell is already a significant market share holder in the French-language broadcasting market, and its purchase of V Media would make the company a “veritable behemoth” if approved, “with corresponding increased market power and opportunities to exercise it in anti-competitive ways to the detriment of Canadians and the Canadian broadcasting system.” Quebecor Inc., Bell’s primary competitor in Quebec market, also submitted a filing to the regulator opposing the acquisition. In an English-language press release about the filing released November 29, Quebecor claims that, with the acquisition, Bell would control some 42 per cent of Canada’s advertising revenue. “This would be a totally untenable situation. Bell could use its monopoly to dictate advertising rates and exert crushing pressure on other players, which would have to lower their rates to compete,” Quebecor said in the statement. “By weakening the other industry players, this acquisition will undermine the quality of information and diversity of voices that are the foundation of a healthy democracy,” Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau said in the statement. Péladeau in July asked the government of Quebec to block the purchase. In other interventions on the proceeding, the Directors Guild of Canada asked the CRTC to approve the acquisition, saying it “represents an opportunity to support original French-language programming.” It advocated the conditions, however, that Bell maintain a ‘programs of national interest’ (PNI) expenditure threshold at 18 per cent across its French-language group, rather than the proposed 16.5 per cent proposed by Bell. Telus Corp. submitted that while it takes no position on the proposed transaction, the CRTC should put in place conditions on the license to mitigate the effect of Quebecor and Bell -- as two vertically integrated companies -- on the advertising market. “There is a real concern that, due to additional consolidation in an already concentrated market, entities will be in a stronger position to deny advertising opportunities to independent competitors, or reduce such opportunities to less favourable times, or render them less effective due to the proximity of advertisements with competing services,” the company wrote. “Appropriate conditions of licence can help mitigate these risks.” The Sherbrooke Chamber of Commerce said it supports Bell’s proposed transaction, citing the importance of maintaining of French-language media in the area. Bell’s acquisition of V Media would include the television station CFKS in Sherbrooke. Bell announced that it wanted to buy V Media back in July. “As it is increasingly difficult to ensure the sustainability of a conventional channel within a non-integrated group, I have made the best decision for the future of V. Bell Media will certainly allow V to continue to evolve and reach out to the Québec public on a massive scale,” Groupe V Média president and founder Maxime Rémillard said in a release at the time. — With reporting by Michael Lee-Murphy at mleemurphy@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

V buy would give Bell too much market share: PIAC, Quebecor

Broadcast | December 3, 2019

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V buy would give Bell too much market share: PIAC, Quebecor

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