The Canadian Media Guild is pleased that the CRTC is blocking CTVGlobemedia from owning CITY stations in five major cities in Canada.

The CRTC says it will allow CTVglobemedia to buy effective control of CHUM Ltd., but balked at allowing it to own CITY stations in Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver, where it already has conventional TV stations.

“We’re relieved to see the CRTC has drawn this line in the sand,” says Lise Lareau, president of the Canadian Media Guild, which opposed the purchase on grounds that owning more than one station in a single market would leave viewers and advertisers with less choice. “It means the regulator has decided it should still have some teeth. That’s despite self-serving claims by the Globe and Mail in a recent editorial that broadcast regulation is obsolete.”

The Guild is looking forward to the CRTC hearing in the fall to examine the diversity of voices in Canada’s broadcast system.

“Even with this CRTC decision, the issue of concentrated media ownership in Canada hasn’t gone away,” Lareau notes. “What people may not realize is that with this deal, a private media company in Canada will now have significant radio and television networks and become a much bigger media force. This very issue of cross-media ownership is being hotly debated in the United States. The impact on communities across Canada, especially when it comes to local programming and news, needs serious attention.”

For more information,click here to consult the CMG’s submission to the CRTC, Six Reasons to Stop CTVglobemedia’s Takeover of the CHUM Stations or contact Karen Wirsig (karen@cmg.ca) at 416-591-5333 or 1-800-465-4149.