Monday, April 9, 2007

Yet another nail in coffin to diverse voices in Canada

It will not surprise me in the least if the CRTC, Canada's broadcast regulator, turns its collective head away and ignores yet another assault on diversity in the media. Because CTV's recent purchase of CHUM will effectively give it three stations in many of Canada's markets, it's decided to spin off some of the motherlode -- to Rogers Cable. We need that combination like a shot in the dark.

Included in the sale are some prime assets: The A-Channel mini-network, the Brandon affiliate of the CBC, the Alberta educational station, and two cable channels (one educational, the other soft-core porn). Already there is a problem because Rogers owns OMNI 1 and 2, the Toronto-based multicultural channels and adding the Barrie affiliate of A-Channel would give it three stations in the Toronto-Hamilton market which is supposed to be a no-no under regulations.

The thought that Rogers could effectively own both the pipes as well as some of the channels fed through it is the much bigger issue.

If one wants to understand what media concentration can do, one only has to take a look at Vancouver where one company -- Can-West -- controls 87% of the voices available to people in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island: Two television stations, numerous radio outlets, the monopoly paper in Victoria and all three sheets in Vancouver (the Sun, the Province, and the Vancouver edition of the Toronto National Post. Can-West has a 100% pro-Israel and 0% Palestinian editorial policy even in cases where the Palestinians are absolutely in the right. Moreover, Asper and company have banned some of the most insightful voices on foreign policy from its pages; not the least of which is Gwynne Dyer.

People in British Columbia would be fools if they believed all the crap that comes out of Can-West and would be totally brainwashed were it not for the emergence of the Internet. At least alongside the Net there are some independent voices out there that filter through the trash; but the fact is many people don't even have dial-up so they're stuck and what they listen to, they'll believe.

It may be true Ted Rogers is a more benign tyrant than You Know Who from Winnipeg. The stations he does run -- radio and television -- do have a degree of independence from head office; and there's no question programming at OMNI got better after he took over in 1995. But the fact is he does cross-promote with his radio products and the news even if made with local voices is more or less the same across the Rogers brand -- hence, again, fewer voices.

On the one hand, it'll be good to see City separated from the A-Channel brand. The "Citypulse" news format which worked so well in Toronto simply didn't work when it was spread to other cities across Canada in other. When CKVR became The New VR, people in Huronia gave it their own nickname: "Very Revolting." As A-Channel, it's won a few rewards but still is controlled by out-of-towners. But it's not enough to have local faces, there should also be local ownership which reflects local attitudes, not that of Bay Street. On the other hand, City will be run by CTV and there's no reason to suspect anything other than that we'll wind up with CTV 1 and 2. Which means we'll see even more of the same people on both nets. Don't be surprised if eventually CH becomes Global 2, either -- it is anyway, in everything but name.

As I expected, the Competition Bureau gave the initial deal a pass and will thumbs-up this subsale too; and I don't anticipate it'll be any less tough for Rogers or CTV when it goes to the CRTC if for no other reason than the sham group is now run by Judge Konrad von Finckenstein who used to run Competition! (Talk about incest within the government.)

Which is a shame. The next thing to go in Canada wil be net neutrality and we know for a fact PMS wants fewer voices telling the truth about his government -- anyone that opposes him, after all, is a traitor to him. The only good thing about this sale, if you can call it a good thing, is that SexTV is part of the package. Maybe Rogers can use his money to buy the rights to some newer "feature presentations" rather than the same stuff CHUM's recycled over the last seven years.

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