The 10 companies shortlisted for Media Player of the Year in Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue were at the top of their game in 2012. We’ll be featuring each one online as a lead-up to our January 2013 issue, where you’ll find out which media company will reign supreme.
It’s impossible to say for sure how much power it had, but Bell knows who to blame for its quashed Astral deal. Holy industry intrigue!
When Quebecor, Cogeco Cable and Eastlink Communications came together in early August to form the “Say No to Bell” coalition, it was like Batman suddenly deciding to partner with longtime foes Riddler and Penguin to bring down the Joker.
Led by super-rich/media tycoon Pierre Karl Péladeau (right) and his trusty sidekicks, Cogeco CEO Louis Audet and Eastlink CEO Lee Bragg, this unlikely alliance of media “super-frenemies” was relentless in its bid to derail Bell’s $3.4-billion bid for Astral Media’s TV, radio and out-of-home assets.
For a steady month prior to CRTC hearings on the deal, the coalition used its combined media assets to air a series of ads attacking the merger. The campaign painted a picture of unparalleled media concentration that would adversely impact Canadian consumers.
The coalition also launched an online petition that ultimately drew more than 50,000 signatories. A few
weeks later, a similarly intentioned group sprang up to lobby against the deal. “Stop The Takeover” was the product of OpenMedia, a grassroots group that “didn’t feel comfortable lining up with corporate titans” to fight against Bell/Astral.
At the hearings, other groups and competitors voiced their concerns about the deal, and Péladeau used his time to underscore his feelings: “The impacts of such a domination would be multiple and would allow the suppression of all competition,” he said of Bell’s power should the deal be approved. And just in case it wasn’t clear: “Arrogance has no limits for Bell’s leaders,” he said.
But, given the CRTC’s tendency to approve most major broadcast media mergers during the Charles Dalfen and Konrad von Finckenstein eras, most still believed the Bell/Astral deal would be similarly green-lit by the CRTC under new boss Jean-Pierre Blais. Perhaps the CRTC would require Bell to divest some Astral assets, but the possibility of the entire deal being quashed seemed as likely as Robin hooking up with Batgirl.
Then, BLAM! KA-POW! ZING!, Bell was left reeling in early October when the federal regulator ruled against the Astral purchase—saying a deal of such magnitude would “adversely affect competition and diversity” in the Canadian broadcasting system.
“This transaction would have resulted in an unprecedented level of concentration in the Canadian marketplace and we had grave concerns that BCE would be able to use its market power in an unfair manner and engage in uncompetitive behaviour,” said Blais. “Simply put, this was not a good deal for Canadians.”
Given the fact the proposed Bell/Astral merger drew more than 9,700 interventions, both for and against, it’s impossible to qualify the direct impact “Say No to Bell” had on the CRTC decision.
Bell, however, seems to hold the “Say No to Bell” group primarily responsible. In the wake of the CRTC decision, it issued a release saying it was “shocked” and claimed that the ruling was tainted by “behind-the-scenes lobbying” from its cable rivals (without naming them).
The tone became even more outraged as the release went on, with Bell accusing the CRTC of serving cable companies focused on protecting their profit margins—a hand grenade clearly tossed in the direction of Quebecor (which owns Quebec-based cable service provider Vidéotron), Cogeco and Eastlink.
These organizations, Bell claimed, “dedicated their vast TV, print and other media holdings to an aggressive and blatantly misleading campaign aimed at subverting due process and quashing enhanced competition.”
It went on to accuse the CRTC of granting the cable companies private meetings in which to voice their concerns, and falling “head over heels” for a well-funded “propaganda effort that made a mockery of the entire process.”
That a multimedia behemoth like Quebecor would lobby to have a media deal quashed because it would create a media monolith drips with irony. But nevertheless, the “Say No to Bell” coalition played a lead role in a historic media story in 2012, making it one of the Media Players of the Year.
To read more about the companies that made the Media Players of the Year and Marketers of the Year shortlists, check out Marketing’s Nov. 19 issue, which is on newsstands now.
