3 Comments

1. Anon-K says:

   November 3, 2009 at 10:01 am

   In general I agree with the assessment
   except, after a fashion, the statement “Cable and satellite providers are not obliged to pass those costs to consumers, just as they weren’t the last time the CRTC put measures in place to support local programming about a year ago”. They are not obliged by the government, no. They are, however, by the corporate owners and shareholders who would see this as a hit to the bottom line. I say again, the broadcasters must have been smoking something to think that these fees would not be passed onto the consumer. The networks are looking at their bottom line; why would they expect the carriers to not do so also?
2. MarcR says:

   November 3, 2009 at 6:42 pm

   left hand meet right
   Anon-k,

   The broadcast distributors own most of the broadcasters as it is.

   It’s one subsidiary fighting with another. This should never have been made public to begin with.
3. Anon-K says:

   November 4, 2009 at 5:46 am

   @MarcR
   I know of one case where this occurred. However, let’s look at the major players in this:

   CTVGlobeMedia: owners of CTV and A-Channel stations, NTV in Nfld (all three of which are listed separately on the Local TV Matters website), the Globe & Mail and Report on Business Magazine, plus a number of specialty channels and radio stations. 15% owned by Bell, 20% by TorStar.

   Canwest: Global TV plus a number of specialty channels, newspapers and digital media outlets. I was unable to find much by way of ownership info, save that the Asper family controls most of the voting shares.

   CITY-TV: 5 stations. Owned by Rogers Broadcasting Limited (not part of the “Local TV Matters” group.

   CBC – Canadian Crown Corp.

   V – the former TVQ in Quebec.

   So while I concede that there is some cross-ownership, I am not so sure about your “most” statement.