Source : Globe & Mail

When the CRTC announced new rules guiding concentration of ownership in Canadian media, it continued a long, delicate dance with an issue that began almost a half-century ago. Today, we take a glimpse into the constantly evolving and rarely boring relationship between Canada's broadcast media and its government, past and present.

1. Radio on rails

The birth of Canada's national broadcasting industry in itself stemmed from efforts by the Canadian government to establish competition for a monopoly – though it was a monopoly that had nothing whatsoever to do with media.

In the early 1920s, Canadian National Railways, a government-owned white elephant that was struggling to compete with the Canadian Pacific Railway, went looking for ways to promote its business and get a leg up on its competitor. The gimmick it came up with was radio; it would use its existing telegraph lines to connect a network of transmitters across the country, creating the first national broadcasting network. The original broadcasts were heard by passengers on the trains themselves.

2. TV's cross-ownership pioneers

From 1952 to 1960, a single broadcaster – CBC – controlled 100 per cent of Canada's television market. The government-owned public broadcaster ran seven channels in the nation's major centres, while the smattering of privately owned stations in the country were obliged, by law, to carry CBC's programming.

But in 1960, regulators approved the first private TV licences to broadcasters not affiliated with the CBC, and by 1961, they had banded together to form the country's second national network, CTV. The most powerful voice in that alliance belonged to Toronto station owner John Bassett – who also owned the Toronto Telegram newspaper. Others included Lloyd Moffat (who also owned a Winnipeg radio station), Gordon Love (radio in Calgary) and Canadian Marconi (radio in Montreal). But in Vancouver, regulators pointedly rejected bids for new stations from owners of other media.

3. CTV: No. 1, but almost out of bullets?

For the CBC, the 1960 licence approvals were the beginning of a long erosion of its influence over the airwaves. Today, the public broadcaster mandated to promote Canadian culture commands a mere 9 per cent of Canada's English-language viewership. CTV, meanwhile, has 37.4 per cent of the English market – within spitting distance of the CRTC's new 45-per-cent cap for television market share.

Here's a look at the estimated market shares among Canadian TV providers:

English Language:

CTV – 37.4%
CanWest – 26.3%
Corus – 9.1%
Rogers – 6.8%
CBC – 9%

French Language:

Quebecor – 32%
Astral – 23.2%
SRC (French CBC) – 18.1%
Cogeco – 12.2%

4. Close, but no troika

CTVglobemedia, the owner of CTV, also comes within a split hair of exceeding the CRTC's new limit on cross-ownership of different kinds of media in a single urban market. CTVglobemedia already owned The Globe and Mail and CTV when it bought CHUM Ltd. in 2006, giving it, among other things, a stable of radio stations. Technically, that gives CTVglobemedia Toronto-based radio, TV and newspaper ownership. But The Globe and Mail is considered a national newspaper, rather than a local Toronto publication. Thus, CTVglobemedia's ownership in the Toronto market passes muster with the CRTC.

5. Aussie-rules ownership

If you think you've seen the CRTC's new cross-ownership rules somewhere before, you have: Australia instituted rules in 2006 prohibiting ownership of more than two kinds of media in any single market.

But the CRTC stopped short of adopting one of Australia's more intriguing policies for maintaining media diversity. The Aussies have put in place a simple points system for determining whether print and broadcast media in a given market contain enough unique voices. Each separate media owner in that market is assigned one point, and as long as a market has at least five total points (i.e. five different owners of newspapers, TV or radio stations) in a major market, or four points in a smaller urban centre, it is considered sufficiently diverse. But if someone proposes any takeover that would bring that score below that level, the deal would face rejection. A study last year determined that four of Canada's biggest cities (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary) would already fail the Australian points test.

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