Telecom giant Bell isn't giving up on buying TV specialty and radio station company Astral Media and plans to make its case to federal cabinet, though Ottawa has suggested it has little appetite to intervene.
Bell said Friday that it will petition the Harper government, arguing the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission didn't properly follow its own rules, and if it's successful, will re-submit its $3.4-billion deal to buy Astral.
"I think if government spends even just a bit of time looking at it, it will become so readily apparent and obvious that yesterday's (Thursday) decision is an absolute travesty, an absolute farce when it comes to regulatory administration," said Mirko Bibic, chief legal and regulatory officer for BCE Inc.
Bibic said Bell isn't asking for the decision to be appealed or overturned, but for cabinet to tell the CRTC to apply the current rules.
Bell said it will request on Monday that cabinet issue a "policy direction" to the CRTC under Section 7 of the Broadcasting Act, requiring the commission to follow its already in-place policies when reviewing change of control transactions in broadcasting.
"The Broadcasting Act explicitly empowers the cabinet to issue directions to the CRTC on broad policy matters," Bibic said.
"With such a policy direction in place, Bell would then re-submit its application for approval of the Astral transaction."
The CRTC nixed the deal by Bell on Thursday, saying it wasn't in the best interest of Canadians.
CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais said had the regulator allowed the deal, BCE would have controlled almost 45 per cent of the English TV viewership and almost 35 per cent of the French. As well, it would have become the largest radio station operator in Canada and would have controlled over half of TV pay and specialty services.
But Bell disagrees, saying Bell and Astral combined would have an English-language TV market share of 33.5 per cent. The combined companies would have a 24.4 per cent of the French-language TV market, both within the rules, Bell said.
Bibic said Bell will argue that its proposed acquisition of Astral was guided by, and complies with, the CRTC's 2008 Diversity of Voices policy, which states it would approve broadcasting transactions resulting in a company controlling less than 35 per cent of the total TV audience share.
But Industry Minister Christian Paradis said that the CRTC is an independent commission that makes its own decisions.
"The CRTC operates on an arm's length from the government," Paradis said at an event at the Canadian Space Agency, south of Montreal.
