July 14, 2006: Conglomerate & Music

Youth music market to be 'locked up' -- Ad rates expected to rise: Conglomerate will own MuchMusic, MTV Canada Kevin Restivo, Financial Post, July 13, 2006
www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost
/story.html?id=dee49215-34a0-41e6-a5e7-2206e92eeeeb

The $1.7-billion acquisition of Chum Ltd. gives Bell Globemedia Inc. a much-coveted lock on the nation's youth-music airwaves as they potentially pair their MTV Canada property with Chum's MuchMusic.

"They'll have the youth market locked up," said Kaan Yigit, president of Solutions Research Group consultancy. "Where else are you going to go if you want to reach the 18- to 34-year-old demographic now? [....]

CTV also stands to benefit from the deal because it gains access to MuchMusic's seven million strong subscriber base and popular brand. And more importantly, the potential to charge higher advertising rates. [....]

Search: CRTC regulations prohibit direct competition with

Get rid of the CRTC and Canadians will get competition ... I think ... I hope. The regulations have stifled competition, have they not? At least, when I read the regulations I used in a post in Jan. or Feb. 06, I was shocked at the strictures ... the lack of freedom to just do business. It sounded more as though a bunch of political cronies had consulted Quebec and the Centre ... and not much else. The rest of Canada does not hear their voices emanating from what has been so let's try something new.

Someone enlighten me if that is a totally wrong point of view based on my lack of knowledge of how the infrastructure works (particularly telco/internet pipes and lines) since I don't have an insider's knowledge. I just know I hate what I'm getting, and with Bell GlobeMedia's lock on media and telco ownership and probably on much more, it can only get worse from the point of view of discourse and variation of opinion allowed to be broadcast ... unless we get some freedom for alternate businesses to flourish.