Bell Challenges CRTC Ruling

Yesterday the CRTC ruled in favour of a complaint issued by Telus, determining that Bell has been illegally withholding select television content from other carriers to gain a competitive advantage. 

Without hesitation, BCE came forward to declare that it would be challenging the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission's ruling. The ruling suggested that Bell did not allow NHL and NFL games to be streamed from other carriers, an anti-competition tactic to lure consumers to its service. However, Bell is arguing that the leagues ultimately decide how to distribute their live sports games. There is added complexity because the content is streaming on mobile devices in this instance, not TVs, and this relatively new avenue for programming remains blurry in the law books. 

Last week, Bell partnered with Rogers to buy Maple Leaf Sports Entertainment, a controversial move even before the aforementioned drama hit the boiling point.