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Team Critter
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Darkstar416
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Former CHUM employee and current City Council candidate Adam Vaughan has some words about the BGM-CHUM deal...
"There are serious implications for Toronto arising out of this deal. Its impact goes beyond the serious concerns about media concentration on a national level," said Vaughan.
<SNIP>
"The CRTC must take this into account as it considers the merger."
The cultural sector is Toronto's fourth largest employer, Vaughan stated.
"The presence of television production facilities and independent production studios in downtown neighbourhoods is about more than just jobs. These businesses anchor several local business districts; they pay a significant amount of commercial tax and they attract investment to the city".
In pressing for action Vaughan added "Toronto's position as Canada's Media capital cannot and must not be taken for granted".
As a former broadcaster and radio station manager Adam Vaughan is calling on Mayor Miller and Toronto City Council to press the federal government for a full public review and debate on the deal before a decision is made. In the interim Vaughan is demanding that the CRTC ensure that existing Promises of Performances filed by the broadcast licensees be adhered to and enforced by the federal regulator.
In addition no production should be transferred out of Toronto to accommodate the merger while a decision on the acquisition is pending.
"There are serious implications for Toronto arising out of this deal. Its impact goes beyond the serious concerns about media concentration on a national level," said Vaughan.
<SNIP>
"The CRTC must take this into account as it considers the merger."
The cultural sector is Toronto's fourth largest employer, Vaughan stated.
"The presence of television production facilities and independent production studios in downtown neighbourhoods is about more than just jobs. These businesses anchor several local business districts; they pay a significant amount of commercial tax and they attract investment to the city".
In pressing for action Vaughan added "Toronto's position as Canada's Media capital cannot and must not be taken for granted".
As a former broadcaster and radio station manager Adam Vaughan is calling on Mayor Miller and Toronto City Council to press the federal government for a full public review and debate on the deal before a decision is made. In the interim Vaughan is demanding that the CRTC ensure that existing Promises of Performances filed by the broadcast licensees be adhered to and enforced by the federal regulator.
In addition no production should be transferred out of Toronto to accommodate the merger while a decision on the acquisition is pending.
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unimaginative2
Guest
I was astonished as a young teen when I went down to the states and excitedly turned on the exotic MTV, only to discover that 90% of the programming was anti-drug propaganda pieces.
S
scarberiankhatru
Guest
The other 10% being reruns of 'The Real World' or 'Road Rules.'
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bizorky
Guest
If BGM doesn't buy CHUM, then Astral probably will - Astral of Montreal. That will get Adam's undies in knot.
D
Darkstar416
Guest
I'm not sure Astral could afford CHUM to be honest. It likely would have been the other way around. Still, I'd widely expect that both Astral and Alliance Atlantis will either combine or be bought out by someone like CanWest Media Works, Rogers, Shaw, Quebecor or Videotron within the year.
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bizorky
Guest
Interesting point.
However, isn't CanWest swimming in debt, though (as is Rogers, Videotron and Shaw)?
However, isn't CanWest swimming in debt, though (as is Rogers, Videotron and Shaw)?
D
Darkstar416
Guest
Rogers and CanWest certainly are. Not sure sure about the other two. Still, a little debt never stopped these companies anyway.
A
andreapalladio
Guest
Rogers is going to take an gigantic hit next year when cell phone numbers become transferrable. They are already planning cutbacks and layoffs in order to absorb the loss. They may not be willing, or able, to borrow $2 billion dollars to buy CHUM.
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Ed007Toronto
Guest
Time to short Rogers stock?
A
andreapalladio
Guest
I'd dump it, if I owned any.
S
spmarshall
Guest
Rogers is going to take an gigantic hit next year when cell phone numbers become transferrable. They are already planning cutbacks and layoffs in order to absorb the loss.
There's ads all over Brampton for hiring customer service reps and other staff for the old Nortel site they're consolidating their Don Mills and 905 operations into, so that's a surprise to me. Though I look forward to having my cellphone number transferable - after I moved, I use it as my primary number (bonus: no Boris the mover or other telemarketers), so I would look for a great rate.
D
Darkstar416
Guest
More for Adam Vaughan, this time in Eye Weekly...
Toronto needs to stop bell globemedia from swallowing the ChumCity empire
The mega-merger of Bell Globemedia and CHUMCity should worry Torontonians. As the Watters family, who started CHUM and saved Citytv by buying it in the late '70s, tries to bow out of the media business, and as the company that owns the CTV television network, the newspaper chain run by The Globe and Mail and the telecommunications giant Bell continues to grow, it's tempting to worry about this latest development as yet another example of media concentration. But there's a lot more to worry about than just that. Especially for people living in Toronto.
Regarding concentration, the issues are obvious. Those involved in the merger claim that CFTO (CTV's local affiliate) and Citytv will remain separate, as will CP24 and Newsnet, the new company's competing news organizations. In the short term, this may be possible and it's certainly what the regulator (the CRTC) wants to hear, but in the long term, it's highly unlikely.
Membership in the Ottawa press gallery, for example, is expensive and most of the video you see on any network in the country is the result of a pool camera that members buy into and support. Why would any media company pay and staff two crews and two reporters and two editors and book two satellite feeds for the same story when one would do?
Citytv may claim it brings a Toronto perspective to the Hill, but in recent years, as obligations to serve all Ontario on CP24 have grown, and as Citytv looks to broaden its reach into the 905 region, the station has moved to covering the top national story out of Ottawa instead of digging up local angles ignored by national media.
The same can be said for City Hall and Queen's Park. Consolidation of resources makes sense on a corporate level and spending shareholder money to compete with yourself is never a long-term strategy in the private sector.
This means that it will get harder and harder to bring Toronto stories -- like the island airport or even the plight of the homeless -- to a national stage. It may become even harder to get local stories aired. It's not uncommon in newsrooms to have stories re-edited to protect corporate advertisers. In corporate media families as well, a negative story on one station can affect advertising sales on another media platform.
The CRTC -- who must approve the merger -- is not unaware of these dynamics and the major political and lobby groups are working on the problems linked to media concentration, too, but for the city of Toronto, the problems are even more serious than journalistic convergence.
There are jobs, for example. Now, no one at CHUM is lying when they say that the 289 layoffs announced on the same day as the mega-merger had nothing to do with the day's deal; the layoffs that hit Citytv sister stations in smaller markets across Canada were actually more a result of the last big merger between CHUM and Craig. But that doesn't mean jobs won't be lost in this merger. They will. Bell Globemedia said Friday that there would be no changes in the first year but, after that, restructuring is anticipated.
Restructuring of Citytv and CFTO, MuchMusic and MTV and all the other Toronto properties now controlled by Bell Globemedia is inevitable. Corporate head office will not send two acquisition teams to Hollywood every year and have their teams bid up the price of new sitcoms. One team will do the buying. The other team will be laid off.
Similarly, on the domestic front, independent producers won't have two media groups to play off each other as they sell locally produced documentaries, reality shows or made-for-TV movies. There will be one big player and, just as Wal-Mart sets market value, so too will this new media empire.
This means less money for production. This means fewer people hired for less all the way down the chain. It is also likely that as part of the approval process, shows will be transferred out of Toronto to appease local politicians in places like Lethbridge, Ottawa and Vancouver. These media centres just lost jobs as a result of the last major merger and it is unlikely they will be silent this time. In the past, productions have been relocated just to gain approval from federal regulators. It will happen again and Toronto jobs will be lost.
Consolidation of production studios is also something to watch. Bell Globemedia now has studios and production facilities scattered around the city. CFTO is in Scarborough, CTV on Yonge, Citytv is on Queen with Bravo and MuchMusic. MTV is at the Masonic Temple. The Globe's on Front and Report on Business Television is there, too.
There is a fleet of live-eye and production vehicles and camera and edit suites tied up in these properties. Radio has property, too. Something has to give.
Underneath all of these TV and radio studios is land. Expensive land. Many of these buildings are heritage buildings. Some of them anchor commercial strips in the downtown. Some of them occupy sites that, if sold, could help finance the deal. At the very least, none of these sites operate 24 hours a day. Not even CP24. Consolidation of production space is inevitable. It's an easy assumption to make that Toronto's TV production capacity is about to shrink.
When it goes, what happens to the neighbourhoods where these facilities currently reside? Imagine the most unlikely scenario: what would happen to Queen West if Citytv and Much left? What would happen if another condo went up on the block and workers were replaced with condo owners? The city would lose tax dollars, the neighbourhood would lose local businesses that rely on CHUM workers and Queen Street as the historic centre of live music -- corporate or otherwise -- would be over.
All of the above scenarios are possible and, at the risk of sounding alarmist, they put Toronto's cultural industries in a very precarious spot. Culture is this city's fourth largest employment sector. Lost jobs, diminished capacity and a ruptured street culture are not the concerns or responsibilities of the Watters family, CHUM's directors or Bell Globemedia. If the Watters family wants out of the broadcast industry they helped create in Canada and Toronto, that's their choice.
Protecting Toronto jobs, protecting this city's cultural industry, making sure neighbourhoods are protected from massive change -- this is a job for city hall. The mayor, the head of culture, the roundtable on film and television, the roundtable on culture and, at the very least, the local city councillor should be speaking up and they should be speaking up now.
Toronto must make sure we are at the table as this merger is considered. The city must make sure that its economic and cultural interests are protected and it must make sure that the decision is as political and as public as possible. This city's position as Canada's major centre for media must not be taken for granted. It must be respected and protected.
ADAM VAUGHAN WORKED AT CITYTV FOR EIGHT YEARS -- THE LAST SIX AS A POLITICAL SPECIALIST. HE ALSO MANAGED CKLN RADIO IN TORONTO AND HANDLED CRTC AFFAIRS FOR THE STATION. ADAM VAUGHAN IS CURRENTLY A CANDIDATE FOR CITY COUNCIL IN WARD 20 (TRINITY-SPADINA), WHERE CHUM'S HEADQUARTERS AND THE GLOBE AND MAIL OFFICES ARE LOCATED.
ILLUSTRATION ADAM HARRIS
Toronto needs to stop bell globemedia from swallowing the ChumCity empire
The mega-merger of Bell Globemedia and CHUMCity should worry Torontonians. As the Watters family, who started CHUM and saved Citytv by buying it in the late '70s, tries to bow out of the media business, and as the company that owns the CTV television network, the newspaper chain run by The Globe and Mail and the telecommunications giant Bell continues to grow, it's tempting to worry about this latest development as yet another example of media concentration. But there's a lot more to worry about than just that. Especially for people living in Toronto.
Regarding concentration, the issues are obvious. Those involved in the merger claim that CFTO (CTV's local affiliate) and Citytv will remain separate, as will CP24 and Newsnet, the new company's competing news organizations. In the short term, this may be possible and it's certainly what the regulator (the CRTC) wants to hear, but in the long term, it's highly unlikely.
Membership in the Ottawa press gallery, for example, is expensive and most of the video you see on any network in the country is the result of a pool camera that members buy into and support. Why would any media company pay and staff two crews and two reporters and two editors and book two satellite feeds for the same story when one would do?
Citytv may claim it brings a Toronto perspective to the Hill, but in recent years, as obligations to serve all Ontario on CP24 have grown, and as Citytv looks to broaden its reach into the 905 region, the station has moved to covering the top national story out of Ottawa instead of digging up local angles ignored by national media.
The same can be said for City Hall and Queen's Park. Consolidation of resources makes sense on a corporate level and spending shareholder money to compete with yourself is never a long-term strategy in the private sector.
This means that it will get harder and harder to bring Toronto stories -- like the island airport or even the plight of the homeless -- to a national stage. It may become even harder to get local stories aired. It's not uncommon in newsrooms to have stories re-edited to protect corporate advertisers. In corporate media families as well, a negative story on one station can affect advertising sales on another media platform.
The CRTC -- who must approve the merger -- is not unaware of these dynamics and the major political and lobby groups are working on the problems linked to media concentration, too, but for the city of Toronto, the problems are even more serious than journalistic convergence.
There are jobs, for example. Now, no one at CHUM is lying when they say that the 289 layoffs announced on the same day as the mega-merger had nothing to do with the day's deal; the layoffs that hit Citytv sister stations in smaller markets across Canada were actually more a result of the last big merger between CHUM and Craig. But that doesn't mean jobs won't be lost in this merger. They will. Bell Globemedia said Friday that there would be no changes in the first year but, after that, restructuring is anticipated.
Restructuring of Citytv and CFTO, MuchMusic and MTV and all the other Toronto properties now controlled by Bell Globemedia is inevitable. Corporate head office will not send two acquisition teams to Hollywood every year and have their teams bid up the price of new sitcoms. One team will do the buying. The other team will be laid off.
Similarly, on the domestic front, independent producers won't have two media groups to play off each other as they sell locally produced documentaries, reality shows or made-for-TV movies. There will be one big player and, just as Wal-Mart sets market value, so too will this new media empire.
This means less money for production. This means fewer people hired for less all the way down the chain. It is also likely that as part of the approval process, shows will be transferred out of Toronto to appease local politicians in places like Lethbridge, Ottawa and Vancouver. These media centres just lost jobs as a result of the last major merger and it is unlikely they will be silent this time. In the past, productions have been relocated just to gain approval from federal regulators. It will happen again and Toronto jobs will be lost.
Consolidation of production studios is also something to watch. Bell Globemedia now has studios and production facilities scattered around the city. CFTO is in Scarborough, CTV on Yonge, Citytv is on Queen with Bravo and MuchMusic. MTV is at the Masonic Temple. The Globe's on Front and Report on Business Television is there, too.
There is a fleet of live-eye and production vehicles and camera and edit suites tied up in these properties. Radio has property, too. Something has to give.
Underneath all of these TV and radio studios is land. Expensive land. Many of these buildings are heritage buildings. Some of them anchor commercial strips in the downtown. Some of them occupy sites that, if sold, could help finance the deal. At the very least, none of these sites operate 24 hours a day. Not even CP24. Consolidation of production space is inevitable. It's an easy assumption to make that Toronto's TV production capacity is about to shrink.
When it goes, what happens to the neighbourhoods where these facilities currently reside? Imagine the most unlikely scenario: what would happen to Queen West if Citytv and Much left? What would happen if another condo went up on the block and workers were replaced with condo owners? The city would lose tax dollars, the neighbourhood would lose local businesses that rely on CHUM workers and Queen Street as the historic centre of live music -- corporate or otherwise -- would be over.
All of the above scenarios are possible and, at the risk of sounding alarmist, they put Toronto's cultural industries in a very precarious spot. Culture is this city's fourth largest employment sector. Lost jobs, diminished capacity and a ruptured street culture are not the concerns or responsibilities of the Watters family, CHUM's directors or Bell Globemedia. If the Watters family wants out of the broadcast industry they helped create in Canada and Toronto, that's their choice.
Protecting Toronto jobs, protecting this city's cultural industry, making sure neighbourhoods are protected from massive change -- this is a job for city hall. The mayor, the head of culture, the roundtable on film and television, the roundtable on culture and, at the very least, the local city councillor should be speaking up and they should be speaking up now.
Toronto must make sure we are at the table as this merger is considered. The city must make sure that its economic and cultural interests are protected and it must make sure that the decision is as political and as public as possible. This city's position as Canada's major centre for media must not be taken for granted. It must be respected and protected.
ADAM VAUGHAN WORKED AT CITYTV FOR EIGHT YEARS -- THE LAST SIX AS A POLITICAL SPECIALIST. HE ALSO MANAGED CKLN RADIO IN TORONTO AND HANDLED CRTC AFFAIRS FOR THE STATION. ADAM VAUGHAN IS CURRENTLY A CANDIDATE FOR CITY COUNCIL IN WARD 20 (TRINITY-SPADINA), WHERE CHUM'S HEADQUARTERS AND THE GLOBE AND MAIL OFFICES ARE LOCATED.
ILLUSTRATION ADAM HARRIS
B
blixa442
Guest
When it goes, what happens to the neighbourhoods where these facilities currently reside? Imagine the most unlikely scenario: what would happen to Queen West if Citytv and Much left? What would happen if another condo went up on the block and workers were replaced with condo owners? The city would lose tax dollars, the neighbourhood would lose local businesses that rely on CHUM workers and Queen Street as the historic centre of live music -- corporate or otherwise -- would be over.
What's stopping City TV from relocating now?
D
Darkstar416
Guest
Nothing's stoping them. Vaughan is poiting it out that it's more like now as BGM will find themselves with a huge surplus of real estate.