Telus on Tuesday urged the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to reject Rogers Communications’ proposed takeover of Shaw Communications because the merger of the two companies would create an overly dominant player in the country in its industry.
Speaking on the second day of hearings at the federal regulator in Gatineau, Telus argued that the merger would reduce competition and give Rogers too much power over content and distribution.
Telus vice president of telecommunications policy and chief regulatory counsel at Telus, Stephen Schmidt, said the merger would give Rogers the size it needs to grab exclusive rights to international content and allow it to act as a sort of custodian of Canadian programming.
Rogers had argued on Monday that it needed to increase its scale to be able to compete with competition from companies like Netflix and Amazon.
Rogers said the deal would also mean increased spending on infrastructure and increased competition for rural communities as the company would expand its services into areas currently served only by Telus.
Mr Schmidt countered on Tuesday that Rogers’ commitments were too vague and that infrastructure investments could take place even without the merger.