GATINEAU – The CRTC hearing into Rogers Communications’s proposed acquisition of Shaw Communications wrapped up Friday with a reply from Rogers during which the company argued the deal is good for Canadians and for the broadcasting system despite what interveners have said over the past week.
“As our panel highlighted on Monday, there is no question that this transaction is in the public interest,” said Ted Woodhead, senior vice-president of regulatory at Rogers.
“It embraces the transformational moment we face, positioning Canada’s broadcasting system for a strong and sustainable future. With Shaw and Rogers joining forces, Canadian consumers will enjoy more choice. There will be stronger competition against Bell and Telus and the global digital media giants,” he said.
Of course, the Commission heard from intervenors who disagreed with this assessment throughout the past week and either asked the Commission to outright deny the proposal or to approve it but with further safeguards put in place. You can read about their concerns and requests here, here and here.
Woodhead accused many of those who appeared at the hearing of wanting “to ignore the reality of the now, not to mention the future.”
“They reject the current framework that is designed to provide consumers with choice and flexibility that was introduced by the Let’s Talk TV decisions. The safeguards they have proposed offer little that would help to sustain the future of the Canadian broadcasting system,” he said.
Woodhead took issue with Bell and Telus specifically on Friday, accusing them of providing the Commission with “a series of manufactured concerns,” and arguing they are worried about Rogers becoming a better competitor and not the public interest.
“… the notion that any global giant or any foreign streaming service is going to do anything other than try to get to every possible subscriber just doesn’t carry any water” – Eric Bruno, senior vice-president of content and residential products, Rogers
“For decades, these two companies have consistently advocated for the notion of scale for themselves but have now decided that scale is a bad thing when it comes to Rogers and Shaw. You will need to weigh their credibility,” Woodhead told the Commission.
Both Bell and Telus raised concerns during the hearing about the potential for Rogers to abuse the market power it will gain if the transaction is approved.
Telus used an example of its negotiations with Disney+ to argue there is the potential for defacto exclusive agreements to be put in place.
Zainul Mawji, executive vice-president of home solutions at Telus, told the Commission Telus had been negotiating a deal with Disney for Disney+ when the merger between Rogers and Shaw was announced. She said Rogers and Disney came to an agreement, and then Disney pulled out of negotiations with Telus. Disney did eventually say they would do a deal with them, but with a revenue guarantee Mawji said Telus did not have the subscriber base to be able to agree to.
In response on Friday, Susan Wheeler (right), vice-president, B2B distribution and regulatory, Rogers Sports and Media told the Commission Friday Rogers’s “arrangement with Disney+ was concluded before the announcement of the Shaw transaction.”
She said Rogers does not have exclusive BDU (broadcasting distribution undertaking) rights and argued “the fact that Telus has failed to negotiate a deal with Disney+ is not evidence of exclusivity.”
Along this vein, when asked a question on the matter by CRTC chair Ian Scott, Wheeler and Eric Bruno, senior vice-president of content and residential products at Rogers, said it is not in Rogers’ nor the foreign streamers’ interest to get into exclusive deals.
Wheeler argued it would not be beneficial to Rogers to make a programming service like SportsNet unavailable outside of Rogers because it depends on advertising revenue, and advertising revenue is based on viewership numbers.
“We do not agree that this money should be diverted to competing local television stations” – Susan Wheeler, vice-president, B2B distribution and regulatory, Rogers Sports and Media
Bruno made a similar argument with regards to the foreign streamers, who he said have a goal of driving subscriptions and who can face financial consequences when they do not meet subscriber-related targets. Because of this, “the notion that any global giant or any foreign streaming service is going to do anything other than try to get to every possible subscriber just doesn’t carry any water,” he said.
Rogers also replied to concerns from interveners about local news and the redirection of funding that Shaw allocated to Corus for its Global TV stations to Rogers’s Citytv stations on Friday.
As Wheeler pointed out, there were interveners who asked the Commission to ensure the funding normally allocated to Global would continue to be allocated to the network.
“We do not agree that this money should be diverted to competing local television stations,” she said. “This funding will ensure that CityNews provides a stronger and more competitive editorial voice in the West that rivals CTV and Global.”
Rogers made several local-news related commitments it said it would be willing to accept as conditions of approval.
This includes, as was mentioned on Monday, a commitment to produce 12 live, annual news specials that address local issues.
When prompted by Commissioner Nirmala Naidoo for more information, Wheeler explained the specials will be targeted to specific markets, but that it would be 12 specials total across all markets (Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary and Winnipeg) as opposed to 12 specials in each market.
Other commitments to local news Rogers indicated it was willing to take on as conditions of approval include forming an Indigenous news team with journalists from every province, creating a western Canadian 24/7 digital news service, and adding two western-based journalists to the CityNews Parliament Hill team.
Further information about local news at Rogers and other topics including the company’s proposed tangible benefits package will be provided to the Commission in the form of written responses on Monday.
Screenshots taken from CPAC’s feed of the hearing.
