“Extremely difficult” conditions threaten Bell Canada’s investment in media content and telecommunications infrastructure across the country, including in Quebec, its president and CEO, Mirko Bibic, said in an organized speech on Monday afternoon. by the Canadian Club of Montreal.
Mr. Bibic was on stage to present his transformation strategy which should ensure the future of the company. He did not fail to shoot a few arrows at past federal governments “who did not react quickly to the Internet” and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which “endangers” his business plan.
“Over time, the regulatory framework in Canada has evolved, but today, it is no longer moving fast enough,” he said. Mirko Bibic, who has headed Bell Canada since the beginning of 2020, points to “unfair competition” from foreign digital giants, such as Netflix, on the one hand, and that of small independent and regional Internet service providers, on the other. . Thanks to a recent CRTC decision, they will soon be able to use Bell’s fiber optic network to offer Internet services similar to its own “without having to invest.”
“We are investing billions to connect [des collectivités] like Trois-Pistoles, and next door another supplier just has to wait to use our network without investing, before we even have time to sign our first customer,” summarized the big boss of Bell.
Competition on both sides
Caught between these two fires, Bell is therefore asking the government and the CRTC to review the legal framework surrounding the telecommunications sector in general and that of broadcasting in particular, to give some breathing room to the main cable distributors and owners of Canadian digital networks .
“The CRTC must ease the obligations of traditional broadcasters, force American producers to collaborate with Canadian broadcasters and force foreign platforms to contribute to Canadian media funds,” he first listed. As for Internet networks, the CRTC must rather back off, according to him, otherwise “it will jeopardize our ability to offer the best network” throughout the country, he then said.
Bell Canada has invested $4 billion since 2020 in its network infrastructure in Quebec. The CRTC’s request to share this infrastructure with regional competitors is part of the federal government’s strategy to lower prices paid by consumers by offering them more choice. For Ottawa, more competition means lower prices.
The president of Bell doesn’t quite see things the same way. “The real competition is when Bell arrives in a new market with optical fiber,” Mirko Bibic then affirmed in an interview with The duty. In the early 2000s, cable companies like Videotron had the advantage over telephone companies like Bell when it came time to offer high-speed Internet service. But since then, the arrival of optical fiber has changed the situation.
“The cable companies had no competition at the time. Today, it is us who are lowering prices with fiber,” says Mr. Bibic. “Now cable companies are forced to lower prices and invest in their own networks to compete. »
No collaboration
One thing is certain, competition remains keen in Quebec between Bell and Quebecor. Even in market conditions where the media see their revenues disappear and where French-language radio, television and cinema see their influence threatened by foreign multinationals.
In recent weeks, it has been suggested that Quebec broadcasters collaborate more to create a local content offensive that would be able to compete with American giants like Netflix or Disney+. Bell, which prides itself on having developed its digital content platforms such as the Crave application in the country, does not want such a collaboration.
“The solution is not there,” assures Mirko Bibic. “The solution is to force foreign producers to form partnerships with Canadian broadcasters. We do what we have to do, in terms of transformation, to become a digital content distributor. We created Crave; on the advertising side, we also created our own platforms. We created all of this. We did our job. »
If we follow the thoughts of the president and CEO of Bell Canada, it is now up to the government to do the rest.