OTTAWA - The national telecommunications regulator is putting Bell Mobility in the penalty box for securing exclusive rights to hockey and football content for mobile devices.
The wireless phone company gave itself a significant competitive advantage by signing deals with the National Hockey League and National Football League, the CRTC ruled Monday.
"Canadians shouldn't be forced to subscribe to a wireless service from a specific company to access their favourite content," Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, said in a statement.
"Healthy and fair competition between service providers will promote greater choice for Canadians."
The decision followed a complaint from Telus Communications (TSX:T) last January after it failed to secure the rights, first from the two sports leagues and later from Bell (TSX: BCE).
The NHL content includes games and video highlights, while the NFL content includes prime-time games and playoff games, including the Superbowl.
Telus argued that the exclusivity of Bell's deal had a negative impact on Telus's ability to compete in both the broadcasting distribution and wireless markets.
Bell's position was that Telus could still broadcast content not covered by those deals and had presented no evidence that without the content, it couldn't compete.
But in its ruling, the regulator said Bell's exclusive deal put Telus at an undue disadvantage.
"Although the Canadian mobile content distribution market is an emerging market, it is likely that sports will be a primary driver in the mobile video market and there will continue to be an increase in consumers' desire to have access to popular premium sports programming over mobile devices in Canada," the ruling said.
"This serves to increase the likelihood that the arrangements between Bell and the NFL and NHL would have a significant adverse impact on Telus's ability to attract mobile subscribers for its broadcasting content."
Bell Mobility must file a report within 30 days explaining how it will ensure Telus has access to the NHL and NFL content at reasonable terms.
Neither company was immediately available to comment.
The decision comes days after Bell and Rogers (TSX:RCI) teamed up for a $1.07-billion bid for a majority stake in the Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, giving them ownership of the NHL's Maple Leafs, the NBA's Raptors and the Toronto FC soccer club.
While the two companies are fierce rivals in the mobile communications business, the deal was built on consumers' growing hunger for sports content broadcast on mobile devices.
But the CRTC decision on the Telus complaint signals that smaller mobile companies will have the right to be fed as well.
