Yesterday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved BCE Inc.’s buy-out of CTVglobemedia for $1.3 billion.
The deal makes Canada’s broadcast industry even more vertical than before, with Bell Canada owning both the means of distribution and content production pieces in its media empire. While it will be debated whether more centralized media ownership results in a loss of the variety of voices contributing to public debate, Bell is sure to take advantage of its new ownership chain to publish content in new ways.
Take for example the deal it struck with the NHL to broadcast live games via its cell phone network. We examined that partnership in this video from Jan. 9, 2009.