Toronto Star: Media Consolidation

Steve Anderson of democraticmedia.ca has an interesting article in today's Toronto Star on the consolidation of media: "A few examples: CTVglobemedia has inhaled CHUM (with Rogers taking the spoils), Alliance Atlantis is on the brink of becoming a part of CanWest and Quebecor Media is poised to take over Osprey Media."

My personal feeling is that as long as net neutrality is maintained this problem is not as serious as it once might have been. Personally I get most of my media online, and 80-90% of it comes from independents and public broadcasters. However, as Steve points out

"Unfortunately, a high level of media consolidation also means that we are in danger of losing the open Internet in Canada and the ability to choose which websites we go to. For the most part the media conglomerates that dominate conventional media also dominate web traffic."

It is becoming increasingly clear that unless commercial media in Canada begins to act in the public interest, or at least make concessions to the public interest (on which their licenses are supposed to depend) that they will have to be brought to heel. The CRTC and Heritage committee have proven ineffective at exerting any control whatsoever - perhaps a targeted boycott of their advertisers would send a message?