O Canada! > Canadian > Canadian Broadband > Great news! - CRTC blocks Astral buy by Bell

Great news! - CRTC blocks Astral buy by Bell

The writing was on the wall. The CRTC has made some decisions lately that are not something we would typically expect to see. The latest one I saw was denying Rogers the right to simsub CityTV in Atlantic Canada without a transmitter. There's been some others, too.

If this is a trend of what is going to happen from this point forward, the CRTC may actually turn into the regulatory body it was intended to be all along.

This gem is nice, too.

quote:

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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

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reply to epsilon3
WOW! maybe someone at CRTC finally grew a pair of balls!
WOW WOW! who knows, maybe there's hope for Canadians after all. The internet procedures seem to have taken a different tone lately too, maybe someone at Bhell pissed on his Corn Flakes

reply to epsilon3
I'm glad it's official...

Looking at the whole mess though I couldn't imagine the CRTC would have approved it.
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Support Bacteria -- It's the Only Culture Some People Have

reply to epsilon3
HAHAHAH BURN BHELL!!!!

reply to epsilon3
Bell "SHOCKED" by CRTC decision, appeals to the federal cabinet....

»www.bce.ca/news-and-media/releas···rvention

Consumers were burned in this, wow were going to be denied more choice, content and can confirm, so says Lord Cope.

Boy I've heard some spinning but this one takes the cake

reply to epsilon3
The people who wrote that release have some balls or no concept of morality, I couldn't even start writing anything along those lines without bursting out in laughter at what utter ******** that release is.

Congrats to the CRTC for seeing what was plainly a terrible deal for consumers and other companies in the media business. If this is what we can expect out of the CRTC on a consistent basis now, I see hope for Canadian Internet and cellphone users.

reply to Farchord

reply to epsilon3
Why the CRTC decision is really bad for Canada and consumers.
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Need-based health care not greed-based health care.

reply to epsilon3
It's a good day! I smiled when I heard this on the radio yesterday. While it is way to early to say faith has been restored in the CRTC there is now some physical evidence to show that smarter, impartial minds have left the golf course and taken to being serious about all the danger these deals are to Canadians.

This almost killed me laughing though:

quote:

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Bell has confirmed that senior CRTC officials met privately with Bell's cable competitors multiple times in the days and weeks before the commission began its public hearings into the Bell-Astral transaction, while denying Bell the opportunity for any such consultations - calling into question the impartiality of the entire process.

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reply to DKS

reply to epsilon3
I got to admit Harper put someone in there with some balls. I still don't like Harper though.

reply to DKS
Nice find, I wonder how much Bell paid Corcoran to write that.

reply to DKS
Corcoran IS NOT a true journalist ... he is always keeping Bell's side ... Check his comments (same as Goldberg's) a while ago when independent ISPs faced Bell ... He is always in bed with Bell, ALWAYS ... this is NOT journalism ... it is Bell propaganda

reply to epsilon3
Geist also stating that there seems to be more consumer focus at the CRTC of late:

»www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6672/125/
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Support Bacteria -- It's the Only Culture Some People Have

reply to DKS

reply to epsilon3
My views on this is that the decision is good for consumers. Of course it is, it is complete unequivical logic that having one big (and in alot of people's eyes, evil) company stirring most of a country's medias is not a good thing.

Now let's look at one of Bell's moving points: If you do not approve the merger, Netflix/youtube/... will take over!

Irrelevant. They are totally different media types. So Bell's solutions was to push a canadian equivalent of Netflix in Canada? How is THAT helping!? Maybe they are trying to stifle cable cutters. Hah! I know for a fact that wouldn't help much... Get better content on TV, then we'll see.

reply to funny