has been instructed to sell hundreds of its outdoor advertising displays, including billboards, transit displays and other advertisements, after entering a consent agreement with Canada’s Competition Bureau. The decision comes as part of — the Canadian subsidiary of a real estate investment trust providing out-of-home advertising space — which sold for $410 million, Bell Media announced Monday. For the merger to earn the blessing of the Competition Bureau, Bell must sell 669 of its outdoor advertising signage, including digital displays, across Ontario and Quebec.
These include 198 displays in the GTA, . The other advertisements are located in Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and the Greater Montréal Area. Magda Konieczna, an associate journalism professor at Concordia University, says journalists are increasingly being tasked with doing more despite In return, Bell gets Outedge’s (formerly named Outfront Media Canada) remaining advertising assets in Canada.
The deal, first announced last October, included Outedge’s 9,325 advertising displays in the country. “The Competition Bureau has approved the closing of the deal and we will proceed with the divestiture of select billboards” in the five areas, a spokesperson for Bell Media told the Star in an email. Outedge Media and the Competition Bureau did not immediately respond to the Star’s requests for comment.
According to the Competition Bureau, before their merger, Bell and Outedge “vigorously comp.