Bell retains rights to exclusive NFL mobile content, will share NHL content with other carriers

In December, the a CRTC commission found Bell and its parent company BCE Inc. in violation of a new law New Media Exemption Order which prevents media companies from unduly holding exclusive rights to media content such as sports programming.

Today the same commission has responded to Bell’s January 31st foll0w-up to that violation order and is satisfied with Bell’s answer. In short, Bell will continue to have exclusive access to NFL content on mobile devices based on a contract the two companies entered into before the new law was passed. The letter, written by John Traversy, Secretary General of the CRTC, says of the NFL deal: “With respect to Bell’s current agreement with the National Football League (NFL) and distribution of the content in question, the Commission now has confirmation from the NFL that Bell has no right to sub-license the content at hand to a third party mobile service provider. The Commission also notes that the NFL has expressed opposition to amending the current agreement with Bell.” 

It is not known when the contract will expire, but since the NFL only deals with companies individually and have “expressed opposition to amending the current agreement with Bell,” we will have to see what happens in the future. After the contract expires, TELUS, who originally filed the complaint with the CRTC, should be free to enter into separate negotiations with the NFL.

As for the NHL deal, Bell has reached a new deal with the league that extends access of hockey content to other mobile providers. As a result, other providers now theoretically have access to obtaining content directly from the NHL without having to go through Bell.

Today, Bell launched its new Mobile TV app which provides live television programming to its various mobile subscribers. It is available for iOS, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

Source: CRTC
Via: The Globe and Mail