CRTC imposes cross-media ownership restrictions

CRTC imposes cross-media ownership restrictions
by: CBC News

The CRTC has brought in new regulations to restrict cross-media ownership as a way of ensuring a diversity of editorial voices in the same market.

The broadcast regulator said on Tuesday that, in future, a person or entity will be permitted to control only two of the three types of media outlets — radio, TV, or newspapers — in a single market.

In other words, a media group that already owned a local radio station and a local television station would likely have to sell one of those broadcast outlets if it wanted to buy a local newspaper in the same market.

The CRTC also said it would impose limits on the ownership of broadcasting licences so that one party would not control more than 45 per cent of the total television audience share as a result of a merger or acquisition.

It also said it would not approve transactions between cable or satellite delivery providers that that would allow one entity to effectively control the delivery of programming in a market.

That would prevent the country's two main satellite TV distributors — BellExpressvu and Star Choice — from merging.

Read the entire article here: http://www.cbc.ca/arts/media/story/2008/01/15/crtc.html

UPDATE JANUARY 16/08: This article has since been revealed to be a mistake. Please read The Tyee's follow-up article.