On Canadian media mergers and public benefits

Vancouver's weekly paper, the Georgia Straight, has an excellent article by Charlie Smith about the two major mergers on the horizon in the Canadian media landscape.

Smith's article pays particular attention to the number of "ordinary citizens" who have submitted comments to the CRTC as the regulator prepares to review the mergers of CTV globemedia and CHUM and Canwest and Alliance Atlantis. What's interesting is that many of the people profiled in Smith's articles are citizens who are connected to the process in some way, either as employees of media assets about to be consolidated or as representatives of arts groups affected by Canadian cultural policy. The question still remains how many people who are disconnected from Canada's cultural industries actually submit opinions to the CRTC, and whether this kind of participation is the most appropriate way to measure public opinion.

Smith's article also features a reminder that with every big media merger comes something in the form of a "public benefits package," in which the corporation (let's say CTV globemedia in this case) "donates" a portion of the total value of the proposed merger back into the community, in the form of supporting the production of Canadian dramatic programming. This "package" works in funny ways, because it can quickly pacify critics of the merger by offering them financial incentives to play ball.

It's also unclear whether this is a public benefits package or an "industrial benefits" package that, like the consultation process itself, has very little to do with the public -- or more importantly, the audience for media offerings.