6-27-2013
Today, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved an application by Astral Media Inc. to sell its pay and specialty television channels, conventional television stations, and radio stations to BCE Inc. The CRTC?s approval comes with a number of conditions that are necessary to uphold the public interest.
?Astral?s application put forward a different approach and responded to many of our concerns,? said Jean-Pierre Blais, chairman of the CRTC. ?Yet there remained a significant risk that BCE could exert its market power to limit choice and competition. To ensure the public interest is served, we are requiring BCE to invest in new Canadian programming and sell more than a dozen services, and we are putting in place a number of competitive safeguards.?
BCE will be required to invest $246.9 million in tangible benefits over the next seven years, which is $72 million more than it had proposed. This amount reflects the CRTC?s revised value of the transaction, as well as the size and exceptional nature of the transaction.
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