Bell President throws hissy fit over CRTC decision, gets smacked the fuck down by own employees

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Bell head meddled in news coverage - The Globe and Mail

So, Kevin Crull, president of Bell Media, had his panties so in a knot over the CRTC's decision of unbundling cable packages, that he tried to fuck with his own news network's coverage of the issue.

He calls up Wendy Freeman, president of CTV News and was pissed off that CRTC Chair Jean Pierre Blais was interviewed on BNN for six minutes and told her he's in charge of the network and that no footage of Blais was to air that day on the network.

Chief anchor for CTV news pretty much said: "Fuck that" and aired footage of Blais (after they had cancelled an interview that same day at 5pm).

Then The Globe and Mail got a hold of it and reported it - G&M is 15% owned by Bell.

This morning Croll apologized for being a world class bitch, but not before the CRTC chair Blais got in one last shot:

Bell Media president Crull apologizes for interfering with CTV coverage - The Globe and Mail

Any guesses on how long Croll will stay there before he's shown the door? He's already pretty much rendered most of the Chum/City purchases unwatchable, and will likely have to shutter a good number of stations.

 

[ndrwrld]

fuckheads skull should have been smashed into the door on his way out.
sickening what he did. it makes me want to leave Bell.

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

His apology is awesome - so much crow being eaten in four paragraphs, I thought he'd fucking yak right there on the spot.

Statement by Kevin Crull, President, Bell Media on CTV News - Bell Media

Bitch even had to apologize to the peeps he was trying to strong arm LOL.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Saw that Greatness yesterday. Fucking WIN

 

[Puma]

I am not so sure about this unbundling experiment. Cable companies will sell u channels pice by pice but they are going to charge 5-20 dollars per channel per month so add that up and unbundling might not be the holy grail of ideas. We will see how much one channel will cost.

 

[derek]

cable?

 

[Karim]

As premium specialty channels are starting to go online in the states, that model will eventually (however slowly) cross over to here.

Dish Network, a US satellite television company, has seen the writing on the wall and has released a service called Sling (no relation to sling box)

Sling is $20 a month and features a number of 'cable only' channels such as:
ESPN, ESPN2, AMC, FoodNetwork, A&E, History, TNT, HGTV, ElRay Network, IFC, Disney, Maker, TBS, Travel, Adult Swim, CNN, History 2, Cartoon Network, ABC Family, Lifetime and Galavision.

They have $5 add on packages too:
SPORTS
ESPN U, SEC ESPN, ESPNEWS, Bases Loaded, ESPN Buzzer Beater, ESPN Goal Line, BE IN Sports HD, Universal Sports Network, and Univision IDN

KIDS
Disney Junior, Disney XD, Boomerang, BabyTV, DuckTV

HOLLYWOOD EXTRA
epix, epix2, epix3, epixDrive-In, SundanceTV

WORLD NEWS EXTRA
HLN, Bloomberg, News 18 India, Euronews, NDTV 24x7, France24, RT

LIFESTYLE EXTRA
Cooking Channel, DIY, trueTV, fyi, WEtv, LMN Network

The cool thing about this service is it seems like every week new channels get added on. Not always new extra cost bundles but additions to the basic $20 package (AMC was a new addition).

If you want everything, it adds up to quite a bit of $, and it's still not the pick and pay per channel model that we hope for, however, it's definitely a step in the right direction. Being able to get ESPN and ESPN 2 is a huge thing for those looking to cut the cord from cable companies.

SLING TV is available on rokus, amazon fire tv sticks, and a bunch of other network media players.

There's a bit of a race happening now in the USA to get streaming services like this out as there's gonna be a major shift in the market towards this type of service delivery. For years now, there has been evidence that Apple has been meeting with the execs of major television networks so that they could launch a pay per channel service through AppleTV. Steve Jobs even said before he died that he's figured out how to fix the broken TV model. This hasn't come out yet however because of network resistance. On the bright side, because Sling TV has launched, it seems that the networks are starting to relax more.

That's not to say it's been easy for this transition to happen in the USA. If the cable companies had their way, there'd be no net neutrality and there'd be throttling of streaming services, and fast lanes for those that pay extra. Net neutrality was a big win for the US and is paving the way for real change.

Here in Canada: Because this is a major threat to current satellite and cable providers, Bell has been on a mission to secure more content providers than ever and buying the rights to major sports teams in Canada. In the event that their control over delivery begins to erode, they want to be able to control the content to ensure that they keep fans of their content on their own expensive delivery medium. They've also been fighting to maintain bandwidth caps to penalize people that stream a lot.

This is going to really slow down the transition to a competitive, internet delivered, pick per channel, inexpensive service landscape here, but it will eventually happen. Especially if it becomes the defacto way to watch TV in the states, and we look over in envy.

This pay per channel model that the CRTC has forced is a tiny baby step in the direction of where we need to be.

So of course this bell exec is pissed off and nervous of the direction that TV is going. I'm sure he doesn't want to be the guy in charge when they lose market share in droves on their TV front.

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

HBO's move away from being bundled with cable is going to be a huge move in the U.S., and will likely kick our asses into gear with the changes that are going on in the U.S.

Hulu is hovering at our door, waiting for the CRTC to give the go ahead to allow access in Canada. When that happens, it'll really hurt Bell's bottom line (who seems have the most to lose from these changes with how much they bought when Moses Znaimer put ChumCity up for sale) and threaten the monopoly that they and Rogers had for God knows how long.

Karim's right, we've been dragging our heels on this, probably to ensure that the switch over isn't too painful, but at least the CRTC is facing reality, while Crull seems unable to do so.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

A couple tangential follow up things,

- the US net neutrality decision was in favour of big business (look at the companies who lobbied and won)

- correct me if I am wrong, but Znaimer was forced out by the board?

(apologies for the thread jack)

 

[Karim]

- the US net neutrality decision was in favour of big business (look at the companies who lobbied and won)

One of the largest discussion points during the net neutrality debate was that of throttling by ISPs of services like NetFlix. Comcast was often cited as the culprit. Comcast charged Netflix a large fee to implement a "fast lane" for traffic from their customers to Netflix's servers.

Comcast claims they suffer from bandwidth overload.

Netflix contends that they are threatened by their service/streaming and are looking to pad their bottom line.

Although many large, somewhat dirty, corporations did benefit from the net neutrality ruling, the subsection that is most relevant to this thread is how companies like Comcast were getting greedy and trying to skim some of Netflix' profits. The fact that this has been shut down is a major good sign for the future of internet delivered video content.

 

[oeretS]

anyone look into Zazeen TV? Just heard about it on the radio.

Zazeen IPTV/Cable TV Bundle - TV, Internet, Phone Plans & Prices Ontario

Seems like a decent channel roster for a fair price

 

[Lil'Timmy]

(who seems have the most to lose from these changes with how much they bought when Moses Znaimer put ChumCity up for sale)

God love ya james, but he didn't put it up for sale because he never owned it. CHUM owned it.

Would have been awesome if CRTC said "You like tampering with the media space WE give you license to have, ok, everything Bell TV has on the air in canada goes dark for 12 hours." See how much revenue you lose because you interfered ya dumbass

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Ah, my bad on the CHUM sale.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Bell Media president Kevin Crull fired for messing with CTV News coverage of CRTC. Bell Canada | BCE announces departure of Kevin Crull from Bell Media

 

[Deus]

Does it matter if you buy specialty channels from the cable company or from an internet media streaming company?

People think the move to streaming is going to save them money. Somewhere in the near future all TV will be streamed through the Internet, but by that time your Internet subscription is going to cost as much as Cable+Internet is costing you now.

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Bell Media president Kevin Crull fired for messing with CTV News coverage of CRTC. Bell Canada | BCE announces departure of Kevin Crull from Bell Media

I love how Bell felt the need to say again how they're going to keep the news team's integrity and hold it to the highest standards.

That fuckstick did a lot of damage to Bell's credibility, and that data flap they had a few days ago didn't help much either.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

Does it matter if you buy specialty channels from the cable company or from an internet media streaming company?

People think the move to streaming is going to save them money. Somewhere in the near future all TV will be streamed through the Internet, but by that time your Internet subscription is going to cost as much as Cable+Internet is costing you now.

No. And No.

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

And now Global seems to be going one step further than what Crull was doing.

Global News Kills Koch Brothers Story, Fires Journalist | CANADALAND

 

[ndrwrld]

read all about that this morning, and i'm pretty disgusted about it...more so, the COCK brothers thinking they can come here and pull that shit.
viva revolution.

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Netflix ‘stealing’ comment nets backlash for Bell Media chief | Toronto Star

LOL - doesn't even get the seat warm and Mary Ann Turke makes a pretty ridiculous statement; people that use VPN to watch U.S. Netflix are "stealing". Even goes so far as to recount how she scolded her own daughter for doing so.

Great work Bell, definitely going to bring back the flock into the fold by accusing them of stealing what you can't and won't offer them in the first place.

 

[Bernnie Federko]

So which hat is Ma Bell wearing as they whinge; the Content Retailer, or Service Provider?

 

[lobo]

Geeze, talk about being out of touch with modern times.

Lobo

 

[JamesM]

I keep seeing the title, and it reads El President throws a hissy.

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

I keep seeing the title, and it reads El President throws a hissy.

Well, considering that you're drunk most of the time, and you're unable to remember when you said you quit, you being barely literate is hardly a surprise.

Are you drunk right now? Bet you are!

 

[el presidente Highsteppa]

Yeah. I'm Finally bailing on Tribe. It's utterly useless.

Irony isn't lost of you either that you're accusing others of a hissy fit when you posted this just two days ago, is it?

It's so easy to own you.