The CRTC identified multiple problems with the Bell bid (radio, tangible benefits, lack of evidence that bigger is better online), but the conclusion says it all:
The Commission finds that BCE has not discharged its burden and demonstrated that, on balance, this transaction is in the public interest. The benefits proposed would advantage BCE and its services, but the Commission is not persuaded that the transaction would provide significant and unequivocal benefits to the Canadian broadcasting system and to Canadians sufficient to outweigh the concerns described above.
While demonstrating that the transaction is in the public interest is always the language used in these proceedings, the CRTC has in the past focused on the tangible benefits package (ie. the multi-million dollar payments to creator groups) as the primary proxy for public interest. No longer. The CRTC’s focus today is unequivocally on the broader public interest with consumer impact the leading concern.
In four months, Blais has transformed the CRTC into a pro-consumer advocate, creating the kind of regulatory agency that until recently was scarcely imaginable. The change is long overdue and credit must go to the new chair and to the government, which has presumably provided the mandate for real change in Canadian telecom and broadcast regulation.
Well BCE’s merger didn’t fly, but it seems pigs have picked up the skill 😀
Consumer win checklist:
SOPA = CHECK
ACTA = CHECK
SCC = CHECK
NEW THINKING AT THE CRTC = CHECK!
What’s next, transparency in trade negotiations? Crazy!
Well I’ll be goddamned. This is certainly a welcome, if unexpected, change. What say we entice Google to bring their fiber optic ISP service north of the border next? Or some kind of real fiber to the home stuff. Not that Bell “Fibe” BS.
Ouch!
That hurt… falling off my chair like that. Who, in this Age of Corporatism, where “what’s good for business, is good for the country” is the adage, would have thought?
“The consumer” is you. It’s me. It’s all of us. Of course the interests of “the consumer” should be front and centre, and it’s time this realization trickles up, down, and laterally.
I’m glad that we don’t see more concentration in the market. Good job, CRTC!
@Crockett
CETA = ?
TPP Agreement = ?
I share your joy but there’s still a lot of work to be done to get specifics in the open, and to force trade partners to remove SOPA/PIPA/ACTA-like clauses that directly impact the public from “trade agreements”.
Ms.
More of the same seems to be the corporate/political/educational rhetoric that has developed the fear mongering aspect. Now CRTC is our collective baby-sitters/nearing 60 and definitely an orphan with 3 married daughters and each one having one of my amazingly cute granddaughters I say poppycock.
Cabinet will overturn the decision
monster beats pro
http://www.beatsbydresite.org/
education, (government, justice,) medicine, religion, (rel=entertainment, if you follow weber)
monsanto, enron, microsoft, diebold, big oil, phrama, copyright.
lets see bell media provide e-book textbooks for grades x-y, for a start.
(written by other a loyal (conservatives who can’t read or write, but do manage to steal.) types, natch.
or provide warnings that the TV (viewing, settings) is being monitored/ altered.
no? aid and abet one of the ‘other’ four pillars in some way?
(a ban on fox info-tainment, for starters)
no?
unlease the jesters. It’s time to roast quebec again.
packrat
why do you assume the CRTC is more activist than previously and it is not just a political appointment fulfilling their duty on behalf of certain industry players – Palideau?
Now if they would loosen up the foreign ownership rules and loose the cancon requirements so we could get some real competition.
BRAVO PEOPLE! BRAVO!!!
I almost fainted.
Michael, I have followed your blog for a long time. Myself and friends participated in the Shaw consultation, watched as the Internet was sold to the public as a commodity, and always bemoaned the anemic responses of the CRTC.
We are overjoyed at this decision – consumers and the public interest finally have the body designed to protect them, actually doing its job.
Free the tubes!
A step in the right direction, but now we the public need to wrestle control of the internet infrastructure (back) from Bell. If they want to be a media company, that’s fine, but they can’t own the pipes competition (i.e. Netflix) rely upon to deliver their services too. This only serves Bell’s business and allows them to stifle the competition by pricing internet services such that Netflix and others are priced out of existence. Bell doesn’t get to have its cake and eat it too!! Free the tubes and allow innovative internet services to flourish in the absence of a “tax” from the entrenched juggernauts like Bell and Rogers.
game@gmail.com
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I wonder how the rejections has affected everything since then. learn more here