You might recall that I wrote about Rogers and their GameCenter Live App and all the content that’s available to them. You’d think that every Canadian in hockey mad Canada would like it. But Telus and Bell are less than thrilled about it and complained to the CRTC. First up, here’s what Bell had to say via CTV:
Bell TV says that the GamePlus mobile app should be made available for free to all NHL GameCentre Live subscribers, not just those who are customers of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B).
“Consumers who are not Rogers customers will be harmed as a result of being blocked from accessing this content,” Bell TV argues in a filing to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
And backing them up is Telus. Here’s what they said via The Globe And Mail:
“This exclusive is not a story of innovation, but rather one of foreclosure of competition,” Telus wrote in a filing with the CRTC dated Nov. 14.
“If this exclusivity continues to be permitted, consumers will very quickly be forced to pay more for access to content as a result of being forced into multiple subscriptions for mobile and Internet services.”
Clearly they’re not happy. Rogers must not have been thrilled about this because they took to Redboard to respond:
Bell and Telus don’t like that we’re giving you a really cool interactive online experience called GamePlus™ to supplement your hockey watching. And now they’re saying it violates CRTC rules, claiming it was produced primarily for TV and that we shouldn’t be able to offer it just to you. The complaint makes no sense, especially when this is exactly what the CRTC rules allow – unique features that take advantage of the power of the internet and the latest technologies.
And:
What’s really telling here is that given the chance, our competitors would do exactly the same thing: Bell bid for the same exclusive NHL rights and lost, and Telus has proposed changes to the rules that would let them offer exclusive features to their customers, but not us.
We’ll continue to follow the rules set by the CRTC and won’t stop giving hockey fans more.
Ouch. This is really messy. This is really going to be fun to watch if they’re going at each other like this.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
This entry was posted on November 20, 2014 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Bell, Rogers, Telus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Bell & Telus Complain To The CRTC About Rogers GameCenter Live…. Rogers Responds
You might recall that I wrote about Rogers and their GameCenter Live App and all the content that’s available to them. You’d think that every Canadian in hockey mad Canada would like it. But Telus and Bell are less than thrilled about it and complained to the CRTC. First up, here’s what Bell had to say via CTV:
Bell TV says that the GamePlus mobile app should be made available for free to all NHL GameCentre Live subscribers, not just those who are customers of Rogers Communications (TSX:RCI.B).
“Consumers who are not Rogers customers will be harmed as a result of being blocked from accessing this content,” Bell TV argues in a filing to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
And backing them up is Telus. Here’s what they said via The Globe And Mail:
“This exclusive is not a story of innovation, but rather one of foreclosure of competition,” Telus wrote in a filing with the CRTC dated Nov. 14.
“If this exclusivity continues to be permitted, consumers will very quickly be forced to pay more for access to content as a result of being forced into multiple subscriptions for mobile and Internet services.”
Clearly they’re not happy. Rogers must not have been thrilled about this because they took to Redboard to respond:
Bell and Telus don’t like that we’re giving you a really cool interactive online experience called GamePlus™ to supplement your hockey watching. And now they’re saying it violates CRTC rules, claiming it was produced primarily for TV and that we shouldn’t be able to offer it just to you. The complaint makes no sense, especially when this is exactly what the CRTC rules allow – unique features that take advantage of the power of the internet and the latest technologies.
And:
What’s really telling here is that given the chance, our competitors would do exactly the same thing: Bell bid for the same exclusive NHL rights and lost, and Telus has proposed changes to the rules that would let them offer exclusive features to their customers, but not us.
We’ll continue to follow the rules set by the CRTC and won’t stop giving hockey fans more.
Ouch. This is really messy. This is really going to be fun to watch if they’re going at each other like this.
Share this:
Like this:
Related
This entry was posted on November 20, 2014 at 4:41 pm and is filed under Commentary with tags Bell, Rogers, Telus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.