CPAC to provide live coverage of CRTC hearing on proposed Bell/Astral deal

MONTREAL - CPAC will present live coverage of the CRTC hearing regarding the BCE acquisition of Astral Media beginning Monday. CPAC will televise the week-long hearing in Montreal in its entirety beginning at 10 am each day, and provide online coverage beginning at 9 am ET.

Since the House of Commons is not sitting until the week of September 17th, CPAC has the ability to carry long-form coverage on the channel in addition to the web site.

Due to the size and scope of the proposed transaction, the Commission has stated it will likely expand the discussion beyond just the acquisition to include topics such as: ownership, diversity of voices, common ownership policy, value of the transaction, etc, says the channel's spokesperson. In the past however, CPAC has shown live video of pure policy hearings and has generally avoided merger/acquisition CRTC proceedings such as this one.

Owned by a consortium of Canadian cable companies, CPAC is delivered via cable, satellite and wireless distributors to over 11 million Canadian homes and worldwide via 24/7 live webstreaming and podcasts.