BCE Privatization Story/Meeting Mr. Sabia

Without a doubt, the privatization of Bell Canada/BCE is the biggest story in Canadian telecom, and has many fascinating angles worth exploring. I've been very quiet about it, simply because it's so widely covered, and if I get started on this, I could be blogging for a long time. I gotta make a living, and have a backlog of other posts to get out from being away last week. Please be patient....

Well, I got my chance to speak my mind about BCE today on BNN - Business Network News. This is one of Canada's main financial news TV networks - it used to be called ROB TV (Report on Business TV), and was recently rebranded as BNN. Same studio, same people, same shows, and same owner - the Globe & Mail.

The studios are right downtown here in Toronto, and I was downtown anyway for a meeting, so the timing worked out well. This afternoon, I was on the After Hours show, hosted by Kim Parlee and Andy Bell. They wanted my take on the BCE deal, and what it means to Telus, as well as the rest of the Canadian communications landscape.

The segment runs about 7 minutes, and you can find the link on the BNN home page. You first need to get to the program listings for July 3, and then scroll down to the 4:40 pm time slot, and you'll see the link there.

If you can't find that, here's a direct link. However, they usually only leave these up on the site for a week, so don't wait too long if you want to view it.

So, what's the connection to Mr. Sabia? Michael Sabia is BCE's CEO, and figures prominently in most of the coverage of this story. Well, who do I run into as I'm leaving the studio? Mr. Sabia - he was on his way in to do the next BNN segment. If you want to hear his take on things, here's the link to the SqueezePlay show which follows After Hours. His interview starts at around the 13 minute mark. Strange, huh? Never met him before, and I may never meet him again - at least in his current role. You never know whose path you will cross - I wonder if he saw my segment?


Technorati tags: BCE, Jon Arnold, Business Network News, Telus, Michael Sabia