Jean-Pierre Sheppard, of our Litigation Group, obtained an injunction order of safeguard against cable broadcaster Vidéotron ltée in favour of our client, a television station specialized in public security.
By an earlier decision, the CRTC had issued an order compelling all distributors, including Vidéotron, to broadcast the television station’s programming on their cable networks, as part of their “basic package”. Vidéotron and our client concluded their contract thereafter.
The CRTC subsequently decided that the above obligation to carry the television station in question as part of the distributors’ basic package terminated August 31, 2015. Vidéotron thus informed our client that it would cease broadcasting its station as of September 1, 2015.
The Superior Court noted that the term of the contract went beyond August 31, 2015, and that nothing in the contract provided that Vidéotron’s obligation was conditional on the existence of the CRTC’s order compelling distributors to carry the station as part of their basic package.
The Court held that if a sophisticated company had intended the contract to be conditional upon the continued existence of the CRTC’s order, it could have provided so expressly, which it did not. A temporary injunction order was thus issued to compel Vidéotron to abide by the terms of the contract.