Source : National Post

Konrad von Finckenstein, head of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, seemed a little like King Canute this week, standing before the tsunami of media innovation, and the recent wave of Canadian media mergers, and declaring "OK, that's far enough."

A new CRTC policy, announced on Monday, restricts private broadcasters from controlling more than two of the three traditional types of media -- newspapers, radio and television -- in any market, from "dominating" local television, or from having more than 45% of the national market.

The CRTC's moves follow a recent spate of mergers. Alliance Atlantis was acquired for $2.3-billion by Canwest (which did not instruct me to write this article or provide any input for it --for all I know, Canwest thinks von Canutestein is a brilliant policymaker) and partner Goldman Sachs &Co. CTVglobemedia paid $1.4-billion for CHUM, after which Rogers Media bought five of CHUM's Citytv stations for $375-million (a divestiture dictated by Mr. von Finckenstein). Finally, Astral Media bought Standard Radio for $1.2-billion.

The Alliance Atlantis deal was the most controversial because of the presence of Goldman Sachs, which was inevitably portrayed by cultural nationalists as the thin end of an assault on our very being. What would be next? Subprime-time TV? In fact, Mr. von Finckenstein intervened to lower Goldman's potential control over the new entity, apparently concerned that the Wall Street giant might limit Canwest's expansion potential. Instead he decided to limit that potential himself.

This week's policy would seem to forestall further mega mergers between the major companies. Thus what has proved so injurious for Canada's banks -- who also strut and fret in a deliberately-created and enforced backwater -- will now be applied, in a modified form, to its broadcasters.

Mr. von Finckenstein declared this week that: "With these new policies, we have developed a clear approach to guide us in assessing future transactions in the broadcasting industry. It is an approach that will preserve the plurality of editorial voices and the diversity of programming available to Canadians, both locally and nationally, while allowing for a strong and competitive industry."

Such wisdom! But the concerns of the CRTC, and the wails of the cultural nationalists, are surely misdirected in the face of the onslaught of "New Media," especially the stunning expansion of what is available over the Internet and via hand-held devices (I should credit Canadian arts groups with acknowledging the threat by calling on Ottawa to reverse its policy and regulate the Internet, just like Beijing and Saudi Arabia!). This explosion of information blows away all nanny concerns about "diversity" and "plurality." And yet the CRTC still seems to hang on to vaguely Marxist notions about monopolists lurking under the bed, waiting to brainwash us.

As for mandated diversity, that would presumably be the same system that has given us specialty channels such as the Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network, which tonight is presenting that iconic Canadian aboriginal favourite, Coal Miner's Daughter, starring that well-known throat singer, Sissy Spacek.

In fact, the CRTC admits that it is "satisfied that the broadcasting system currently provides Canadians with a range of news and information programming. For this reason, it reaffirmed its existing common ownership policies governing the number of conventional television and radio stations a person may control in the same market." But this makes it sound as if the CRTC is somehow responsible for good programming. That claim surely ranks with that of former Liberal Heritage minister Helene Chalifour Scherrer that without the CRTC there would have been no Shania Twain or Celine Dion! Just before the 2004 election, she tried to highlight the Conservative's hidden agenda for broadcasting. "[T]hey would destroy the CRTC, making it a shadow of its former self and open up our skies to American satellites," she thundered. These satellites would then rain down programming that Canadians actually wanted to see. "Do we want Rupert Murdoch to be in control of our cultural policies?" she asked.

It might be worth a try.

The Conservatives have, of course, not dismantled the CRTC, and Mr. von Finckenstein is hardly a right-wing patsy. Although he has occasionally expressed some guarded enthusiasm for markets, he also once suggested that "unbridled capitalism would destroy itself." Neither have the Conservatives (yet) ditched all those wonderful instruments of cultural sovereignty such as the Canadian Television Fund, the entity that has doled out well over $2-billion to give proud Canadians such fare as Trailer Park Boys, a show about a bunch of foul-mouthed losers who drive around in the "shitmobile." Now that's the sort of Canada the world needs more of!

When Mr. von Finckenstein made his remarks about unbridled capitalism destroying itself, he suggested that free markets resulted in "cartels and monopolies" that would lead to a "slackening of innovation." In fact, if there is a dearth of competition and innovation in Canadian broadcasting, it has been largely promoted by the CRTC.

© National Post

Related Documents:

October 16, 2007 - Podcast - FRIENDS presentation to the CRTC on the Diversity of Voices proceeding

September 21, 2007 - Policy Brief - Presentation to the CRTC Diversity of Voices Proceeding [PN CRTC 2007-5+41]
FRIENDS tells the CRTC BDUs have a huge impact on diversity of voices and should be a focus of the CRTC's review.