VMedia alleges bad faith by Bell in delaying app approval

VMedia Inc. has filed a complaint with the CRTC alleging that it is being unduly disadvantaged by BCE Inc.'s delay in approving the distribution of Bell programming over VMedia's streaming apps. According to the Part 1 complaint filed with the regulator on Aug. 5, VMedia (not to be confused with the broadcaster Groupe V Media Inc. recently purchased by Bell) says that in developing its IPTV apps, it was required to fill out questionnaires for programming providers in order to show their programming on the apps. "All of those programmers, with the exception of Bell, approved the apps for launch within two weeks of the submission to them of the completed questionnaires, without imposing any conditions," the complaint reads. Bell on the other hand, the complaint reads, "expressed concern" about VMedia's business relationships for wholesale content distribution with independent internet service providers (ISPs), a part of VMedia's business which the company says is unrelated to its IPTV apps and accounts for five per cent of VMedia's subscriber base. On a June call between VMedia and Bell executives, according to the complaint, following the discussion of VMedia's wholesale business, "VMedia specifically asked Bell if it approved the launch of the apps to VMedia’s direct customers. The senior Bell executive on the call said “yes.” VMedia then went to its own promotional partners and informed them the app was ready to be launched, and it was in late June. VMedia says that in early July, after launching the apps, it received a letter from Bell, which "linked the approval of VMedia’s launch of the apps, to VMedia’s provision of further information about the Wholesale Customers, subsequent to which Bell would finalize its review and approval of distribution of their services via the apps to 'approved customers'." VMedia says that Bell's delay of the approval and "reversal of the position expressed" in the June call shows that Bell is "acting in bad faith" and giving undue preference to its own competing Virgin Mobile TV and Bell TV IPTV products. The two companies have previously clashed over VMedia's over-the-top services, with the Ontario Superior Court ruling in favour of Bell in 2017 in a dispute over VMedia carrying CTV channels on its OTT service.

VMedia alleges bad faith by Bell in delaying app approval

Brief | August 13, 2020

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VMedia alleges bad faith by Bell in delaying app approval

Brief | August 13, 2020

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