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Let media consolidate, Asper urges GRANT ROBERTSON - Globe and Mail VIA theFilter.ca June 21, 2006 [KDR: Hmmm, Bell Globemedia's Globe and Mail writing an article about their partner in crime Asper urging more money and control for both of them. Are you surprised the article is not too critically written?] TORONTO -- Canada's media industry may be headed for another round of consolidation and the government needs to step aside and let it happen, the head of CanWest Global Communications Corp. said yesterday. The Internet has created a multitude of new competitors, and traditional media outlets are now scrambling to maintain their share of advertising dollars, CanWest chief executive officer Leonard Asper told a gathering of business leaders at the Empire Club in Toronto. To compete with Web giants such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and others, Canadian media companies not only need to get bigger -- they need Ottawa to let them consolidate, Mr. Asper said. "There will never be concentration like there was before because you have Google, you have MSN and you have Yahoo. You have all these companies that are competing against The Vancouver Suns and the Ottawa Citizens," Mr. Asper said. "So let us consolidate." Media concentration has been a touchy subject in Canada for the past two decades as smaller newspaper and television companies have been bought, merged or taken over to form larger operations. Ottawa has studied the issue closely in the wake of several deals in the past decade that reshaped the industry. CanWest, which owns and operates Canada's largest chain of metro newspapers, as well as the Global television network, is one of the country's biggest media companies. It competes with Bell Globemedia, owner of The Globe and Mail and CTV Television Network Ltd. Article Posted at www.KnowledgeDrivenRevolution.com Mr. Asper said CanWest would like to expand through acquisitions but didn't specify what segment of the media sector it would look at first. He pointed to several key hurdles that stand in the way of consolidation, including the rules of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that require media companies to invest a percentage of a deal's price tag in operations that the regulator believes further the public good. The payments, known as benefits, are to ensure consolidation doesn't harm the industry. Mr. Asper said the 10-per-cent benefits payment can hinder companies that want to make acquisitions, because it raises the cost of doing the deal. That issue is expected to be addressed by the CRTC. Rules that require reviews of media deals by the Competition Bureau, to ensure radio, print or TV companies aren't dominating a specific advertising market when they buy assets in a city or region, should also be changed, he said. With advertising dollars increasingly migrating to the Internet, local markets can no longer be cornered by any single player, making such reviews unnecessary, he said. In North America, Web advertising has grown to be worth roughly $15-billion (U.S.) in the past five years. "In the inevitable consolidation that will come for all companies . . . the Competition Bureau has to look at it on the basis that the world is just bigger than Canada." About KDR \| \| Home \| \| Weekly Features Archive	Weekly Weekly Features Archive
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Let media consolidate, Asper urges

GRANT ROBERTSON - Globe and Mail VIA theFilter.ca
June 21, 2006

Business [KDR: Hmmm, Bell Globemedia's Globe and Mail writing an article about their partner in crime Asper urging more money and control for both of them. Are you surprised the article is not too critically written?]

TORONTO -- Canada's media industry may be headed for another round of consolidation and the government needs to step aside and let it happen, the head of CanWest Global Communications Corp. said yesterday.

The Internet has created a multitude of new competitors, and traditional media outlets are now scrambling to maintain their share of advertising dollars, CanWest chief executive officer Leonard Asper told a gathering of business leaders at the Empire Club in Toronto.

To compete with Web giants such as Google, Yahoo, MSN and others, Canadian media companies not only need to get bigger -- they need Ottawa to let them consolidate, Mr. Asper said.

"There will never be concentration like there was before because you have Google, you have MSN and you have Yahoo. You have all these companies that are competing against The Vancouver Suns and the Ottawa Citizens," Mr. Asper said. "So let us consolidate."

Media concentration has been a touchy subject in Canada for the past two decades as smaller newspaper and television companies have been bought, merged or taken over to form larger operations. Ottawa has studied the issue closely in the wake of several deals in the past decade that reshaped the industry.

CanWest, which owns and operates Canada's largest chain of metro newspapers, as well as the Global television network, is one of the country's biggest media companies. It competes with Bell Globemedia, owner of The Globe and Mail and CTV Television Network Ltd.

Article Posted at www.KnowledgeDrivenRevolution.com

Mr. Asper said CanWest would like to expand through acquisitions but didn't specify what segment of the media sector it would look at first.

He pointed to several key hurdles that stand in the way of consolidation, including the rules of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) that require media companies to invest a percentage of a deal's price tag in operations that the regulator believes further the public good. The payments, known as benefits, are to ensure consolidation doesn't harm the industry.

Mr. Asper said the 10-per-cent benefits payment can hinder companies that want to make acquisitions, because it raises the cost of doing the deal. That issue is expected to be addressed by the CRTC.

Rules that require reviews of media deals by the Competition Bureau, to ensure radio, print or TV companies aren't dominating a specific advertising market when they buy assets in a city or region, should also be changed, he said.

With advertising dollars increasingly migrating to the Internet, local markets can no longer be cornered by any single player, making such reviews unnecessary, he said. In North America, Web advertising has grown to be worth roughly $15-billion (U.S.) in the past five years.

"In the inevitable consolidation that will come for all companies . . . the Competition Bureau has to look at it on the basis that the world is just bigger than Canada."

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