TORONTO – The CRTC left no doubt as to its stance on an open internet when it clamped down on Bell and Videotron’s practice of exempting their own mobile television services from their standard monthly data charges.
The Commission determined Thursday that mobile television services Bell Mobile TV and illico.tv give their respective distributors an undue preference in favour of their own services, and have subjected consumers of other services to a corresponding undue disadvantage, contrary to the Telecommunications Act.
Bell Mobility was ordered to eliminate the “unlawful practice” by April 29, 2015. Vidéotron, which had already told the Commission that it would withdraw its illico.tv app for BlackBerry and Android devices by the end 2014, was directed to confirm that it had done so to by March 31, 2015.
A Bell spokesperson told Cartt.ca that the decision came as “a shock” and stressed that Bell Mobile TV offers content “from all of Canada’s leading broadcasters” in English and French with only 20% of its programming coming from Bell Media.
“Bell has led the world in mobile TV and we’ve worked to keep the price low”, said Jacqueline Michelis. “More than 1.5 million Bell mobile TV subscribers across Canada responded to that kind of innovation and affordability.”
