WELL, CBC.CA is moving a CP story about the CTV/CHUM takeover which I've alluded to this week.
Tomorrow at 11am the decision gets handed down and I suppose CTV will probably have 30 days to come back with another deal.
OTTAWA (CP) - The federal broadcast regulator will hand down its verdict on CTVglobemedia's $1.4 billion purchase of CHUM Ltd. on Friday amid expectations that Canada's largest private TV network will be forced to sell some or all of five Citytv stations, a key element of the deal.
Sources have told The Canadian Press that the Canadian Radio-television andTelecommunications Commission will make the selloff of at least some of the stations a condition for approving the takeover of CHUM. The Toronto broadcaster has an extensive network of radio and television stations, including six A-Channels and 21 specialty channels.
"CTVglobemedia isn't going to like this decision," one source said, on condition of anonymity.
In any case, it means more uncertainty in an industry with an awful lot of it already.
7 comments:
The most popular form of the rumour I've heard today, and there are many, has them approving the radio assets but not allowing CTV to keep the City tv channels. That results in further speculation that Rogers and CTV will flip the deal they already did and CTV will keep the A-Channels and Rogers will get the City tvs since their channels are all licensed as ethnic channels and the twin stick wouldn't apply to Rogers.
If it keeps more genuine competition in play, then I'd hope this will end up to the good. Keeping my fingers crossed, however naively...
weak. i was looking forward to babysitting chum's space channel...
weak. i was looking forward to babysitting chum's space channel...
Could this mean that the competition remains, but there will still be some sort of benefits package?
The CRTC announcement is here.
Okay, so I got a question...
The CRTC says it can't approve the deal because it's "inconsistent with the Commission’s common ownership policy".
And...
"That policy stipulates that a licensee may not operate more than one conventional television station in one language in a given market".
But with Cable or satellite that gives me access to pretty much every station in the country -- hasn't that already been erased?
I mean -- I live in one market. But the broadcasts I see in that market can come from a half dozen CTV stations -- and all in the same language -- so isn't that rule already obsolete...
And since there's so little original programming, they and all their "Specialty" clones are all playing the same damn show anyway.
So who's kidding who that "the diversity of voices" is being protected...?
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