The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) called out BCE Monday for trying to prevent rival Telus from broadcasting National Hockey League (NHL) and National Football League (NFL) content to its subscribers.
The CRTC made it clear in September that media groups cannot hold exclusive programming rights to certain media content, and stated Monday that it found “Bell gave itself an undue preference and subjected Telus to an undue disadvantage” by securing exclusive programming rights of popular NHL and NFL content for its mobile platform.
Michael Hennessy, SVP regulatory and government affairs at Telus, said Telus Communications approached Bell Mobility last January for the wireless rights for NHL and NFL live streaming and related content. The NHL content includes video highlights and games and the NFL content includes all playoff games, access to NFL Network programming and primetime games.
Telus has been negotiating access to that content for some time, Hennessy told Marketing.
Telus’ complaint “deals with rules that were in place even before the vertical integration safeguard, and I think it reaffirms the commission’s point that exclusivity, whether it’s on linear platforms, on video on demand , online or in wireless, constitutes an undue preference when it comes to broadcast programming,” he added.
The CRTC ordered Bell Mobility to file a report explaining “how it will ensure that Telus has access to its NHL and NFL content at reasonable terms.” The report must be filed within 30 days.
While a Bell spokesperson told Marketing that the company is “still studying the decision” and can’t comment with specifics on how it will move forward, she did comment that “Bell does not control how the major leagues sell their rights in Canada. We do not have the right to sub-licence or re-sell this content. The CRTC is imposing itself directly in how independent and, in this case, international content owners sell their content rights in Canada.”
Sports content for mobile subscribers is believed to be an important motivation underlying Bell and Rogers’ blockbuster deal to buy MLSE. In a release, Bell said the deal accelerates its plan to deliver premium content across all screens.
CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein said “Canadians shouldn’t be forced to subscribe to a wireless service from a specific company to access their favourite content. Healthy and fair competition between service providers will promote greater choice for Canadians.”
He addressed this same issue a couple of weeks ago during the annual conference of the Canadian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications. Summarizing the vertical integration policy that CRTC brought in last September, von Finckenstein said “It prevents vertically integrated companies from engaging in anti-competitive behaviour. They may not offer exclusive content on wireless devices, unless that content has been explicitly produced for those devices only,” he said.
And, of particular note considering CRTC’s announcement on Monday, he also mentioned that “a new code of conduct ensures that distributors, broadcasters and online programming services negotiate in good faith. The code sets out the standards they will be judged by when there are complaints of undue preference.”
During CRTC hearings in June, BCE argued that it wanted CRTC to permit exclusive deals for content on new devices like smartphones and tablets. (Around that time, a temporary ban had been imposed on BCE on exclusive deals for TV shows carried on its mobile devices.)
Not surprisingly since it is the only major wireless provider without media holdings and therefore no content of its own to distribute, Telus’ take during the hearings was that the CRTC should not allow exclusive deals for content on new platforms.
