MONTREAL – As part of its application to buy Astral Media, BCE is asking for an exception to the CRTC's common ownership policy that would allow it to own an extra English-language radio station in Montreal. This would allow it to keep sports talk station CKGM (TSN Radio 690) while buying three Astral stations. Without it, Bell says it will be forced to sell the station or turn in its licence.
But during questioning on Monday at a hearing in Montreal, commissioner Suzanne Lamarre floated the idea of another option: forcing Bell to keep CKGM in its current format and sell one of the other radio stations in the market, hopefully introducing a new player to compete in the market. (It’s worth noting that TSN 690 is not profitable and it is unlikely any new owner would keep the expensive sports-talk format, especially since the rights to Montreal Canadiens games belong to Bell Media, which would take those rights with them.)
The company rejected such an idea in its application, saying the three Astral stations operate as a cluster and would be difficult to separate. They have been commonly owned since 2002 and share offices, staff and other resources. Bell chief regulatory officer Mirko Bibic also said Bell could not guarantee a new owner would operate a divested station at the same level of quality which Astral currently offers.
But at the hearing, more than an hour of which was spent on this exception request, and a tiny part of the $3 billion deal, Quebec regional commissioner Lamarre continued to press Bell about the idea of being forced to keep TSN 690 and selling a different station, noting that even without the exception Bell would have a very large market share in English Montreal radio. She said repeatedly she wanted to explore "all possibilities."
According to BBM Canada, Astral's three English stations (CJAD, Virgin and CHOM) have a 72% commercial market share, and TSN 690 (CKGM) another three. The other 25% belongs to CKBE (92.5 The Beat), owned by Cogeco. Another player, Tietolman-Tétrault-Pancholy Media, has a licence for a commercial AM talk station that has not yet launched.
"Shouldn't we be concerned about so much concentration of ownership?" Lamarre asked, wondering if it wouldn't be "a missed opportunity" not to allow a new player enter the market. She noted that the hundreds of supporters of the station who intervened wanted it kept in its current format, but few truly expressed support for the larger Astral acquisition or Bell taking over the Astral stations in the market.
BCE CEO George Cope weighed in, however, saying "we're not in the business of selling profitable businesses and maintaining unprofitable businesses," seeming perplexed and shocked at the suggestion of the CRTC's proposal — and noting that the sports station has not yet turned a profit.
Bibic (pictured in a cpac.ca screen cap, with his CEO) argued that adding the low ratings of CKGM to the existing Astral stations would be a minor increment. Bell's panel also pointed out that Cogeco has a 65% market share in the much larger French Montreal market, thanks to its ownership of three FM stations (Rythme, CKOI and talk station 98.5 FM) – one of which it kept (98.5) through a similar exception in 2010, when it purchased Corus Entertainment’s former Quebec division.
Astral COO Jacques Parisien argued that the Cogeco exception was granted for an FM station that was profitable and had a large audience. Bell's request is for a niche AM station that hasn't made money since it launched in 2001.
Bell is promising, in exchange for the exception, to keep CKGM in its current all-sports format for a minimum of even years, and give $245,000 to sports journalism scholarships and amateur sports programs in Montreal. But Commissioner Lamarre asked if the exception should also be limited to seven years. Bell said it will provide an answer to this by Wednesday.
