I’ve been trying to decide if I’d weigh in on the debate currently underway at the CRTC. The question: Is continued media consolidation good for Canada or bad for it? I’ve hesitated because I’m afraid of being revealed for the left-wing pinko commie bastard that I am. 
Richard Stursberg, CBC’s head of English television, told the commission that the Canadian media industry has reached levels that “in any other country would be considered unacceptable.”
‘Hogwash,’ replied the Canadian Association of Broadcasters*, a lobby group representing most of Canada’s private/commercial broadcasters. “We see no diversity deficit in the Canadian system,” said Glenn O’Farrell, president of CAB, pointing to the many ethnic and cable TV channels that exist on the dial, despite all the mergers going on at the corporate level.
So far this year alone, three major mergers/acquisitions have occurred in the Canadian media space:
- CTVglobemedia Inc. bought CHUM Ltd for $1.4-billion
- CanWest and the Goldman Sachs Group bought Alliance Atlantis Inc.* for $2.3-billion
- Astral Media Inc. bought radio giant Standard Broadcasting Corp. Ltd. for $1.1-billion
The CBC’s position is this: Public broadcasting needs to provide a counterbalance to consolidation of large commercial broadcasters. But it needs more money to do that. Also, Stursberg said there should be, restrictions on the amount of market share that cable companies can amass, since they can control access to TV sets and Internet distribution.
(The CBC receives less than $1 billion from the federal government each year to operate. It raises about $400 million on its own through television advertising. The CBC has not had an increase in funding for 30 years — not even to adjust for inflation — and yet is expanding its reach for Canadians into many more platforms including satellite radio, podcasts, and the web.)
The CRTC is trying to decide if it needs to tighten up the rules.
The Globe and Mail recently talked about a system in Australia where media concentration is measured using a points system.
Each media operation in a given market – including newspapers, commercial TV stations and radio stations – is worth one point. If any company owns multiple outlets, its collection of media assets counts as one point combined.
If a particular market in Australia is found to have less than five points in total, it is deemed to have an “unacceptable media diversity situation.” In smaller, non-metropolitan markets, the threshold is set at four points.
As well, if any single person or company controls a TV station, a radio operation and a newspaper within a given market, that is considered an “unacceptable three-way control situation.”
Australia’s government reserves the right to prevent future media deals in any market it considers to have an unacceptable ownership situation.
Personally, I don’t understand why alarm bells aren’t ringing at the CRTC.
Major media firms in this country keep trying to widen their pie. But how much profit does a company need? I know very well that they need to continue to increase shareholder value (hell, I used to be CEO of a publicly traded company) but, really, is that all there is? Is that the only value that matters?
I guess that’s what keeps me at the CBC.
We tell stories for and about Canadians, not shareholders.
But, as Dennis Miller used to say, “That’s just my opinion; I could be wrong.”
What do you think? Where does the CBC fit in this consolidated media landscape?
* Disclosures: I have given a keynote address to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. I used to produce a weekly web TV show on technology for Alliance Atlantis’ now-defunct blogtv.ca. I was paid for both of these.
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I LIVE IN SOUTH TEXAS. U.S. MEDIA IS SO ‘OWNED’ BY CORPORATIONS THAT BUSH WAS ABLE TO START AN ILLEGAL WAR. I READ NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD. THE RIGHT-WING, PRO-WAR, CORPORATE MEDIA IS MARCHING THRU COUNTRY AFTER COUNTRY. U.S., CANADA, MEXICO, ENGLAND, AUS, FRANCE. THE RICH, IN VENEZUELA, STILL OWN THE MEDIA BUT THE POOR MAJORITY TOOK BACK THE GOVERNMENT. THERE THE MEDIA SUPPORTED A U.S. BACKED COUP. IN THE U.S., THE CORPORATIONS THAT MAKE THE PROFIT OFF WAR, DECIDE WHAT IS NEWS. COMMIE PINKO, LIBERAL !@#$ IS WHAT THEY CALL YOU WHEN THEY CAN’T ARGUE FACTS. STEVE
Australia is a bad comparison because it is geographically isolated. Canada is a unique media market because of its proximity to the United States. Canadian media outlets not only compete with each other, but also with media organizations south of the border. That means a hyper competitive environment where fewer players can make a profit.
Steve Banyai’s comments are very enlightening, certainly explains why media has changed, even CBC radio. (I am not a TV fan, there’s too many commercials and dumbed-down programs.)
While I’m disappointed with the changes in CBC radio I’ll hang in with CBC while Ideas, Sunday Edition, Quirks or Quorks, As It happens, CCC and other related programs remain, if they ever leave, so will I.
G.
PS- I’m hoping that I can get CBC reception in Port Colborne, On, does anyone know?
“(The CBC receives less than $1 billion from the federal government each year to operate. It raises about $400 million on its own through television advertising. The CBC has not had an increase in funding for 30 years — not even to adjust for inflation — and yet is expanding its reach for Canadians into many more platforms including satellite radio, podcasts, and the web.)”
The CBC is actively working to spend less and less on new platforms, because there are no new dollars and the tv revenues are falling. Without a cash infusion, you can kiss a lot of potential goodbye. And include markets that CBC does not traditionally serve, or has started to ignore.
If anyone should be in this space, it is public broadcasting.
I know I don’t want to see CBC get chopped. It has a legitimate place in the Canadian - and international - media landscape, and one of primacy in the former. As a member of the audience, I am not done with CBC just yet.
http://democraticmedia.ca/
To preserve any shred or semblance of Canadian Culture, I am convinced that ‘consolidated media landscape’ must be subdivided into soundscape and see-scape. Lumping Radio into Television is as stupid as considering books and newspapers to be the same medium. It’s no wonder that visual literacy bilge is being sucked into our intellectual drainspouts daily- to clog the throats and arteries of Radio… our last participatory learning mechanism. Gee-on Gomeshi and Curious George Strobe-e-lopolis have lowered the bar such that “Much Music” is the Port of Entry for anything cerebral- and remotely poignant. CBC executives can laugh all the way to the undertaker, for they are excavating the final resting place of the cadavers of their indifference… the CBC.
are there simply too many channels for people to watch, dividing up the pie into smaller and smaller slices? Is that why media companies need to consolidate, because the digital channels are still losing money?