The fight by cable and satellite TV carriers against fee-for-carriage has tipped into the courts.

Bell Canada has asked the Federal Court of Appeals to overturn the CRTC’s support for the conventional TV bailout on the grounds the regulator has overstepped its jurisdiction.

Bell’s judicial review application argues that its Bell TV satellite service has ‘been denied procedural fairness by the Commission’ by favouring and sanctioning negotiations on proposed fee-for-carriage before the public hearings in September.

Bell notes that the CRTC held public hearings before it rejected fee-for-carriage compensation on two previous occasions.

In a change of policy, and ahead of the public hearings on conventional TV that are set for late next month, the Commission on July 6 signaled it was ready to support broadcasters being paid for their signals by distributors such as Bell TV.

Mirko Bibic, Bell Canada’s SVP of regulatory and government affairs, added the CRTC’s support of a new broadcasting tax was ‘perplexing,’ given the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage rejected the fee-for-carriage tax on cable and satellite TV subscribers.

From Playback Daily.