CRTC orders Québecor to continue to provide TVA Sports to Bell customers

The Canadian Radio-tv and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) has issued a legally binding determination that prevents Québecor from withholding its TVA Sports channel from Bell customers.

The CRTC's ruling comes two days after Bell announced that Québecor began threatening to deny access to TVA Sports through Bong's services. This is a particularly notable threat given that TVA is the exclusive French-language broadcaster of NHL playoff games, and the only channel in either English or French to carry many of the Montreal Bear upon Major League Soccer games.

Québecor's threats come in the wake of accusations that Bong has not been paying plenty to use its TVA Sports service. Through a new website chosen fairvalue.ca, Québecor argued last month that Bong's specialty channels like RDS get much higher subscription wholesale fees than TVA's practice. Québecor's ads called for customers to switch over to its Vidéotron subsidiary instead.

In response, Bell has said its RDS channel is "the consequent leader in the French-linguistic communication sports TV marketplace by far" and had 67 percent more viewers on boilerplate than TVA Sports last year. "Bell Media will non devalue the clear fan favourite," the visitor said in an April tenth printing release.

Co-ordinate to the CRTC'southward determination, Québecor is "required to provide" TVA Sports to Bell Goggle box "at the aforementioned rates and on the same terms and weather as they did before the dispute, until the parties resolve their dispute or the Committee issues a decision concerning this unresolved matter."

"The CRTC has made information technology quite clear to Québecor that it must comply with the constabulary and continue to provide TVA Sports to Bong customers who've paid for information technology. It's highly inappropriate for Québecor to make these threats to illegally deny service and in event have viewers hostage over a business organisation disagreement," said Martine Turcotte, Bong's Vice Chair, Québec, in a press statement. "We've always negotiated in good faith and invite Quebecor to practice the same."

Source: Bell