Gallery
| BIG LOSER | rnBCE rn WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL CRTC?!rn | rn
It almost seemed as though the man claiming to be Jean-Pierre Blais, who denied BCE’s takeover of Astral Media on Oct. 18, was some sort of imposter, à la Invasion of the Body Snatchers. After all, Blais is chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission—the regulator long known for practically rubber-stamping transactions of this sort. But the commission’s decision to kill the $3-billion deal signalled that this isn’t your daddy’s CRTC anymore, and threatened to usher in a new era of regulation for broadcasters in which the best interests of consumers come first. Though BCE claimed it desperately needed the deal for its Bell Media division to compete in an ever-changing and increasingly international market (not to mention to bulk up its presence in Quebec), and altruistically promised to undertake a variety of tangible benefits for the greater good of Canadian society, Blais was having none of it. “At the end of the day, BCE demonstrated clearly that the proposed transaction was good for BCE, but we were not persuaded that it was in the best interests of Canadians,” he said during the press conference in which he announced the decision. “Our only option was to deny the transaction.” That leaves BCE on the hook to pay Astral a $150-million break fee, and a lot of broadcasters worried about what the CRTC will say the next time they want an acquisition.
rnBCE
| BIG LOSER | BCE WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THE REAL CRTC?! |
It almost seemed as though the man claiming to be Jean-Pierre Blais, who denied BCE’s takeover of Astral Media on Oct. 18, was some sort of imposter, à la Invasion of the Body Snatchers. After all, Blais is chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission—the regulator long known for practically rubber-stamping transactions of this sort. But the commission’s decision to kill the $3-billion deal signalled that this isn’t your daddy’s CRTC anymore, and threatened to usher in a new era of regulation for broadcasters in which the best interests of consumers come first. Though BCE claimed it desperately needed the deal for its Bell Media division to compete in an ever-changing and increasingly international market (not to mention to bulk up its presence in Quebec), and altruistically promised to undertake a variety of tangible benefits for the greater good of Canadian society, Blais was having none of it. “At the end of the day, BCE demonstrated clearly that the proposed transaction was good for BCE, but we were not persuaded that it was in the best interests of Canadians,” he said during the press conference in which he announced the decision. “Our only option was to deny the transaction.” That leaves BCE on the hook to pay Astral a $150-million break fee, and a lot of broadcasters worried about what the CRTC will say the next time they want an acquisition.
