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overview
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overview
This profile considers CTVglobemedia Inc. (known as Bell
Globemedia prior to 2007) and its former parent Bell Canada
Enterprises, the Canadian telecommunications giant.
It covers -
introduction
Toronto-based CTVglobemedia Inc is a rebadging of the
Bell Globemedia group, which as of 2004 was 70% owned
by telecommunications giant Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE)
and 30% by Thomson.
At that time it encompassed a national newspaper, a leading
ISP, multimedia interests and a national commercial television
network. For an Australian equivalent think of the Sydney
Morning Herald (SMH), dominant
ISP Bigpond and the Nine television network under the
control of Telstra. In Spain the dominant telecommunications
group Telefonica has expanded
by buying Netherlands-based video and film production/distribution
house Endemol.
In December 2005 BCE sold most of its stake in Bell Globemedia,
for C$1.3 billion, reducing its holding to 20% from 68.5
percent. Torstar and the Ontario
Teachers' Pension Plan agreed to take 20% stakes, paying
C$283 million. Woodbridge, the Thomson family holding
company, was to increase its stake in Bell Globemedia
to 40% from 31.5%, paying C$120 million. In the following
year Bell Globemedia made a C$1.4bn takeover of CHUM.
BCE's stake was reduced to 15%.
In October 2006 BCE announced that it would dissolve and
convert its Bell Canada telecommunications unit into Canada's
largest income trust. In response Canada's federal government
announced rules to severely restrict new conversions and
limit the life of existing income trusts. BCE unsurprisingly
abandoned its conversion plans, announcing sale of its
Telesat arm (for C$3.25bn) and plans to eliminate the
BCE holding company structure, with the Bell Canada name
being used in all operations.
Later in the year Bell Globemedia Inc. announced that
its corporate name would become CTVglobemedia Inc., effective
1 January 2007.
In early 2007 Rogers agreed to
buy the CHUM A Channel broadcast network from CTVGlobemedia
for C$137.5 million. CTVGlobemedia had acquired that network
through its C$1.4 billion takeover of CHUM
and expected regulatory problems. In June 2007 the Canadian
Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission,
counterpart of Australia's ACMA, ordered CTVGlobemedia
to sell its CITY-TV network. CITY-TV comprised broadcast
stations in five of Canada's biggest English-language
markets (including Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton
and Winnipeg). The A Channel deal was immediately cancelled
by the broadcasters, with Rogers instead paying C$375
million for CITY-TV and CTVGlobemedia keeping CHUM's 33
radio stations and 21 specialty channels, including MuchMusic
and Bravo.
BGM
Bell Globemedia, as BCE's 'content' arm, encompassed -
- CTV,
Canada's largest commercial
television network (including 18 wholly-owned stations
reaching over 80% of the Canadian market), in competition
with CanWest's network
- the
Globe & Mail, the nation's largest national
newspaper
- specialty
cable channels CTV Newsnet, the Comedy Network, Discovery
Channel, Outdoor Life Network, and Report on Business
Television (50%)
- national
ISP Sympatico-Lycos, with around a third of online users.
The
group has 4,000 employees and annual revenue of C$4.3
billion. BCE controls 70.1%; while Thomson interests have
the rest of the equity. It competes with CanWest
(broadcast and newspapers) and Rogers
(cable, broadcast and magazines).
BCE is Canada's 14th-largest enterprise by revenue and
in 2001 was 1st by profit. Around 80% of its revenues
and 90% of profits are attributable to its Bell Canada
arm.
A
chronology of the group is here.
The following page provides
an indication of CTVglobemedia and BCE holdings.
the Globe
The Toronto Globe & Mail was founded in 1936
when George McCullagh merged the Mail & Empire
and the Globe.
The Globe had been established by George Brown
(1818-1880) in 1844 with the support of a group of Reform
Liberals. Initially a party organ, it became more independent
during the following decade and expanded its readership
outside Toronto. The competing Mail was established
in 1872 as a Conservative party journal, absorbing The
Empire in 1895. In 1900 The Mail & Empire
claimed a circulation of 61,720 compared with the Globe's
69,545. The latter badged itself as "Canada's National
Newspaper" and aggressively sought upmarket readers
across Canada. In 1936 the Globe was acquired
by financier George McCullagh (1905-1952) and merged with
the Mail & Empire. McCullagh acquired the Toronto
Telegram in 1948, becoming the journal of record.
In 1955 the paper was sold to Montreal financier R. Howard
Webster, becoming the centrepiece of FP Publications in
1965 when Webster's publishing interests merged with those
of John Sifton, Richard Malone and Max Bell. The Sifton
family owned titles such as the Winnipeg Free Press
and Saskatoon Daily Star.
In 1980 the Globe & Mail was acquired by
Thomson as part of the FP deal. Circulation as of 1999
was around 356,000, with a national edition printed at
sites across Canada.
Studies
For CTV see Susan Gittins' CTV - The Television Wars
(Toronto: Stoddart 2001). For the Thomsons
see the separate profile.
For Bell Canada's early history see Robert Collins's A
Voice from Afar, The History of Telecommunications in
Canada (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson 1977) and E B
Ogle's Long Distance Please: The Story of the TransCanada
Telephone System (Toronto: Collins 1979). That account
is carried forward in Pa Bell: A Jean de Grandpré &
the Meteoric Rise of Bell Canada Enterprises (Toronto:
Random 1992) by Lawrence Surtees.
Insights into 'convergence' and regulation in Canada are
provided by Robert Babe's excellent Telecommunications
in Canada: Technology, Industry & Government (Toronto:
Uni of Toronto Press 1990) and the slighter Building
an Industry: History of Cable Television in Canada
(Lawrencetown Beach: Pottersfield Press 2000) by insider
Ken Easton.
Richard Doyle's Hurley-Burley: A Time At The Globe
(Toronto: Macmillan Canada 1990) and David Hayes' Power
& Influence: The Globe & Mail and the News Revolution
(Toronto: Key Porter 1992) deal with the Globe.
Ego and Ink: The Inside Story of Canada's National
Newspaper War (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart
2004) by Chris Cobb covers Conrad Black's
establishment of the National Post, its acquisition
by the Aspers and battle with
the Globe.
Douglas Fetherling's The Rise of the Canadian Newspaper
(Oxford: Oxford Uni Press 1990), Minko Sotiron's From
Politics To Profit: The Commercialization of Canadian
Daily Newspapers, 1890-1920 (Montreal: McGill-Queen's
Uni Press 1997) and Paul Rutherford's The Making of
the Canadian Media (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson
1978).
next
page (BCE and Bell Globemedia
holdings)
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