Telus says Rogers takeover of Shaw would harm competition, urges CRTC to reject
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Telus Corp. urged the CRTC to reject Rogers Communications Inc.'s proposed takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. because it says it would create too dominant a player in Canadian broadcasting.
Telus Corp. urged the CRTC to reject Rogers Communications Inc.'s proposed takeover of Shaw Communications Inc. because it says it would create too dominant a player in Canadian broadcasting.
Speaking on the second day of hearings by the federal regulator in Gatineau, Que., Telus said the merger would reduce competition and give Rogers too much power over content and distribution.
Stephen Schmidt, vice-president telecom policy and chief regulatory legal counsel at Telus, said the merger would give Rogers the scale to secure exclusive rights to international content and act as a kind of gatekeeper for Canadian programming.
On Monday, Rogers said it needed the increased scale to compete against increasing competition from companies like Netflix and Amazon.
Rogers said the deal would also mean more spending on infrastructure, and increased competition for rural communities as the company would expand services into areas currently only served by Telus.
Schmidt said the commitments by Rogers are too vague and that infrastructure investments could happen without the merger.
