Giving them the CHUM's rush

Today's treeware effort, about the union challenge to last month's killer cuts to news programming at CHUM's Citytv and A-Channel stations, is here.

On July 12, when the $1.4 billion (yet-to-be-sanctioned) marriage between Bell Globemedia and CHUM Ltd. was announced, all eyes were on the enormity of the deal.

Only a relative few paragraphs were dedicated to the devastating news that CHUM was cutting as many as 281 jobs and hours of local programming.

Of course, in corporate-speak, it announced "plans for a new approach to local information programming at its conventional television stations across the country."

Translation?

In half CHUM's TV markets, news was dramatically slashed.

So dramatically that the Communication, Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), the largest media union (and the one that represents us Star drones), last week filed a 24-page complaint to the federal broadcast regulator, calling for an immediate inquiry.

The cuts were draconian.

In cities such as Winnipeg, familiar faces and programs just disappeared. Programs that CHUM had either promised or committed to produce. Gone, without so much as a sign-off.

Not much to add to what I have written, or blogged here, here and here, except to say less news is NEVER good news. If CHUM couldn't make the programs work in those markets, they should have fixed them, not cancelled them.

Licence to kill

Last month, when CHUM axed local newscasts across the country -- killing nearly 300 jobs -- it went in default of its conditions of licence. At least that's what the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) charges. (Boldface is mine.)

Chum Limited is in violation of its TV station licences and the CRTC should call an inquiry into the issue and require that the broadcaster fulfill its licence obligations and commitments, says Canada's largest media union.

The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada has filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio/Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in which it is asking the CRTC to declare CHUM Limited in violation of its TV station licenses as a result of recent program cancellations at various stations across the country.

"The dramatic reductions in local programming run counter to explicit commitments made by CHUM to the CRTC. The cuts also have the effect of reducing local content to such a level that at some locations, CHUM is no longer in compliance with its conditions of license," a CEP complaint filed with the CRTC states.

Stations most dramatically affected by the cuts, mainly in local news coverage, include A-Channel Ottawa; A-Channel Victoria; CityTV Calgary; CityTV Edmonton; CityTV Vancouver; and, CityTV Winnipeg. Local news coverage, the complaint adds, has also suffered at the A-Channel in Barrie, Ontario.

Recall that the news cuts came on the same day of the announcement that CHUM was being sold to Bell Globemedia for $1.4 billion. At the time, CHUM CEO Jay Switzer insisted -- and I still believe him -- that the job cuts had nothing to do with the sale, and that they had been in the works for 9 months.

Still, they were draconian and, in some cases, eviscerated local operations.

I haven't had a chance to study the licences of all the relevant stations but I have looked at this, the 2004 CRTC decision which awarded CHUM the Craig group of stations, which included some of the operations hard hit by the cuts. Boldface, again, is mine.

13. CHUM stated that it would increase the quality and extent of coverage of local news and other events for the newly acquired stations in Alberta and Manitoba. CHUM added that it would bring its "street-front/store-front" style of television to as wide an audience as possible by establishing storefront bureaus in Red Deer and Lethbridge, Alberta. CHUM submitted that these bureaus would help ensure that viewers in rural areas are reflected in the local programming broadcast on the Edmonton and Calgary stations.

14. CHUM anticipated that at least a half-hour per week of programming would come from each of the storefront bureaus. This programming would highlight and showcase the opinions and events in the more rural areas of Alberta, where a significant proportion of the audiences for the Edmonton and Calgary stations resides.

Seems like a slam dunk for the CEP, right?

But will the CRTC let CHUM and, by extension, Bell Globemedia get away with it it?

Of course.

H/t to Carla.

 

Crossed out promotion

Here's just one reason media concentration is bad news: TV critics who work for papers affilitiated with networks don't write the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Consider today's column by the Globe and Mail's Andrew Ryan, who is backfilling for John Doyle.

Headed "ABC Suffers Nightmare after Nightmare," it's an account of the dismal summer season suffered by the Mickey Mouse network which has launched, if my count is correct, five reality shows this summer, including the ill-fated The One: Making of a Music Star.

Ryan not only once again catalogs the grisly details of The One, which was simulcast by CBC-TV, but he also dumps all over ABC's equally ill-fated One Ocean View, Buy It Now, Master of Champions, and How to Get the Guy.

This summer has been one long bad dream for ABC. The Disney-owned network was riding high in recent years, but ABC has been knocked down a peg this off-season with a string of tasteless TV mistakes. Each week, it just keeps getting worse for ABC -- and the summer isn't over.

Tonight, for example, should have yielded the third episode of ABC's One Ocean View, a summer reality series about New Yorkers who spend each weekend sleeping with each other in a Fire Island beach house. How could it miss? ABC canned the show last week, citing wretchedly low ratings. Starting tonight, ABC replaces One Ocean View with rebroadcasts of Supernanny.

At first it appeared ABC's summer campaign had simply gotten off to a bumpy start. The network tried something a little different with the reality-dating series How to Get the Guy, in which two relationship experts coached a gaggle of single women trying to find their Mr. Rights -- in San Francisco, where they say it's raining men. It lasted two weeks.

Now here's the thing: Nowhere does Ryan mention CTV which is owned by Bell Globemedia which also owns the Globe. And yet, CTV bought One Ocean View and How to Get the Guy -- something else Ryan neglected to mention.

Don't forget, the Globe went ape over CBC's simulcast of The One, making it front-page news.

So ask yourself this: If they're willing to obfuscate the little things, how will they handle the big ones?

Hell's Bell

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

Had a great weekend. Hope you did too. Back at the keyboard now, pounding away, for both the blog and the main event, the Star.

Here's yesterday's pulpware column on the Bell Globemedia takeover of CHUM, a deal that has its good points and bad. But, as you can see, the bad outweighs the good, at least in my books.

Seems that the only people hoping to consummate the $1.4 million billion marriage between CHUM Ltd. and CTV parent Bell Globemedia are those who stand to make a bundle off it.

And, as the controversy over the $5.25 per share premium BGM is paying for the voting shares reveals, some bundles will be bigger than others.

But this column is for us poor shlubs who have no CHUM stock. For us, the sale, announced July 12, is one bad deal.

It will not only create a media behemoth that could include as many as 33 TV stations, 38 specialty channels, 33 radio stations, the Globe and Mail, an interest in Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Toronto Raptors and more, it will dominate the advertising, cultural, music and sports landscapes as well as the news agenda.

Consider advertising. With one fewer competitor, media costs will rise and will undoubtedly be passed on to consumers.

With music, the merger combines CHUM's MuchMusic brands with CTV's MTV licences. And, although the latter are no longer music video channels, they still have awesome clout.

The converged company will have enormous buying power, and it won't hesitate to use it to get access to the hottest Hollywood or HBO hits.

As for journalism, well, CTV is already the top-rated news source in Canada. Add the CHUM operations into the mix, and BGM will have a powerful influence on public discourse.

The combo also means that producers have one fewer customer for their dramas and documentaries, which means lower licence fees and nowhere to go if a deal gets derailed.

That's too much power in too few hands in too small a country.

Etc. Etc. It's here, as I said.

One thing I would like to point out: Note that this column works against the corporate interests of Torstar (which owns the Star which owns this blog but not me, blah blah). Now I am not bragging. I am just saying. The reason is, I'd like to see other so-called ''media critics'' at other papers attempt to do the same.

Snort.

UPDATE: Here's another take on the media merger, this time from the trade paper Playback.

Dem Aspers dey run everyding

Further to this story yesterday, the Winnipeg Free Press (sub. req'd.) today published a GREAT! BIG! OOPSIE!

WE APOLOGIZE

Friday, July 28th, 2006

We reported wrongly yesterday that Lloyd Axworthy, a former Liberal foreign affairs minister, criticized Winnipeg's Asper family for using its media empire to defend Israel and shape Canadian foreign policy. He did not say that. In fact, Axworthy was referring to groups of diaspora -- various ethnic communities in today's multicultural society -- influencing Canadian foreign policy. Where we quoted Axworthy as saying "the Aspers," he in fact had said "diasporas." We sincerely apologize to both Axworthy and the Asper family.

Can you imagine what went on behind the scenes on that one?

Not so fast, CHUM

Here's proof that those brutal CHUM/City lay-offs earlier this month had nothing to do with the Bell Globemedia takeover. The pertinent graphs are way down in a Globe and Mail Report on Business story today that dealt mostly with the financials of the deal.

The documents also describe how CHUM executives knew little of the negotiations. BGM chief executive officer Ivan Fecan informed CHUM CEO Jay Switzer of the deal to buy the company on June 30.

It was at that point, the documents say, that Mr. Switzer informed Mr. Fecan that CHUM had spent the past nine months reviewing its TV operations and had decided on a "significant restructuring." The move, which included cutting 281 jobs, was to be announced in the next two weeks. The layoffs were revealed the same day the deal was announced.

Which is just what Jay Switzer told me the day after the deal and lay-offs were announced.

Broker this

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

As reported in today's Winnipeg Free Press (sub. req'd.), former Liberal foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy came out swinging against the Harper government, accusing it of throwing away the opportunity of being the ''honest broker'' in the Middle East.

"I am increasingly concerned about the view that the only role that Canada should play is to adhesively stick itself to Bush administration policies and at the very time when in fact those polices are increasingly showing they are not working,'' Axworthy said yesterday in an interview.

"The morass in Iraq is such a talisman for everything that is going on.''

Axworthy said that by calling Israel's response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of its soldiers "measured,'' Harper closed off any chance for Canada to be an honest broker at the emergency talks in Rome yesterday which failed to find a solution to end the fighting.

"Canada has a distinct role to play in certain areas without exaggerating the influence we can have,'' said Axworthy.

Axworthy goes on about how he believes Israel has a right to defend itself and then comes the media angle to this post:

Axworthy also took a shot at Winnipeg's Asper family, saying they are using their media empire to advocate staunchly right-wing positions when it comes to defending Israel.

"The Aspers are increasingly playing a far more important role in shaping Canadian foreign policy."

The front page of Tuesday's National Post -- never mind the opinion and editorial pages -- said it all. Big play for this poll and even bigger play for this guy.

SEE The FREE PRESS'  APOLOGY/CORRECTION HERE!

Bell Globemedia of the ball

THIS POST WAS EDITED TO ADD SOME LINKS:

Well, it looks like Bell Globemedia gets the restructuring it wanted, with Torstar* getting a big chunk of the TV pie, thanks to that overused rubber stamp at the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

The Commission approves an application by Bell Globemedia Inc. (BGM), on behalf of its licensed subsidiaries, for authority to effect a change in the effective control of BGM.

Among the concerns by intervenors: media concentration! But the CRTC says, no worries!

45. With respect to the concerns about cross-media ownership, the Commission notes that Torstar, which owns The Toronto Star, is acquiring only a 20% minority interest in BGM. It further notes that the transaction would not result in BGM obtaining an ownership interest in The Toronto Star as well as the assurances provided by the applicant that The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail will not merge.

46. The Commission is further satisfied that the commitments made by BGM that are set out in paragraph 10 above are sufficient to ensure that CTV Inc.’s television news operations and editorial decisions are distinct from any newspaper operations controlled by Torstar ...

And what are those commitments?

* CTV will maintain separate and independent news management and presentation structures for CTV television operations that are distinct from those of any newspaper operations effectively controlled directly or indirectly by Torstar or its affiliates or by Teachers, now or in the future, or by Osprey as long as Teachers holds this minority investment. Decisions on journalistic content and presentation for CTV will continue to be made solely by CTV news management; and

* CTV news managers will not sit on the editorial board of any newspaper business effectively controlled, directly or indirectly, by Torstar or Teachers now or in the future, nor will any member of any editorial board of any newspaper business effectively controlled, directly or indirectly, by Torstar or Teachers now or in the future, participate in the news management of CTV television operations. This commitment also applies to the newspaper business owned by Osprey, as long as Teachers holds this minority interest.

Don't you feel better now?

I sure don't, especially with that ginormous BGM-CHUM deal barreling at us.

The BGM restructuring all goes down without triggering a benefits package. That's the usual requirement that would force media companies, when merging or making acquisitions, to dedicate 10 per cent of the dollar value of the deal to doing good things, such as improving news coverage, funding drama or creating journalism scholarships.

What does the Rubber Stamp have to say about that?

The Commission considers that the Benefits Policy, as outlined above, applies in cases involving the acquisition of control of a licensee by a person (as defined in the applicable regulations), where such person has, for example, the ability to cause the licensee or its board of directors to undertake a course of action. The Commission does not consider that such an acquisition of control is entailed in the present application.

No wonder BGM CEO Ivan Fecan is '"very pleased."

"We are very pleased with today's decision. It is clear that the CRTC gave full and careful consideration to all of the issues raised, and approved our application as filed."

Dissenting commissioner Stuart Langford protests.

I disagree with my colleagues in the majority. In my view they have allowed themselves to be distracted from the simple facts of this matter by a virtual avalanche of legal documents and legal opinions that either by design or by chance confuse what is in fact a straightforward transfer of control from one shareholder, BCE, to a group of four shareholders: Woodbridge, BCE, Torstar and Teachers.
      
The further delegation of that control to BGM’s Board of Directors and senior management is a red herring. It in no way diminishes the fact that upon approval by the Commission, the control over BGM’s broadcasting assets, the jewel in the crown of which is CTV, will move from a single shareholder to a group of four associated shareholders. Benefits in the amount of 10% of the value of the transaction must be paid.

Langford may get the implications, but he obviously didn't get the memo. That no benefits are being paid is, frankly, an outrage.

Let's see how the Star, CTV and the Globe play this one.

* Standard disclaimer: Torstar owns the Star which owns this blog but not me.

Future shock

OttawaWatch has some pretty plausible predictions about the future of Canada's media.

Here's one, about the National Post.

The National Post has about six weeks left. CanWest's bonds are under review. They are already at junk status. A reduction in rating from BB would drive up the interest rate on any new bonds or any that expire and must be refloated. That is a fatal situation for a company as heavily leveraged as CanWest. Since CanWest is made up of a TV network, the National Post and some zero-value Internet properties, there's only one place to cut to satisfy the bond raters. Six months ago, I thought the NP would shrink back to a tabloid Financial Post. Now, CanWest doesn't have the money for a re-jig or to take that risk.

And here's one about Torstar, which owns the Star which owns this blog (but not me).

I'm sure we will see the sale of the Sun chain to TorStar, as it's a bad fit for Quebecor. The printing company simply doesn't have the management depth to run the newspaper chain or any real interest in the cities it serves.
The Star could use the Sun chain to kill off the freebie threat, skimming off any asets of value for the Star and turning the Sun chain into a line of better-quility commuter freebies in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Calgary, Winnipeg and Edmonton. Quebecorp, with connivance of Sun managers and staff shareholders, managed to snatch the Sun from the Star's grip. Perhaps the Sun shareholders have lived to regret that.

I wouldn't bet the mortgage on some of his prognostications but they make for some interesting reading.

Not so CHUMmy

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

Some one-week-later thought, observations, news and other bits on the $1.7 billion deal between Bell Globemedia and CHUM.

Former MuchMusic/Bravo/Citytv babe Carla Lucchetta muses on the unique CHUM culture in the online magazine, The Tyee.

“Creativity is about surprises, Bay Street is about no surprises,” said Moses Znaimer, co-founder and past President / Executive Producer of CHUMCity in a recent Life and Times program. He was answering the question on everyone’s minds since his sudden departure from Chum in 2003: Did he quit? Or was his “creative” model pushed out by the “corporate” one. And once again, that’s really what’s at stake in Bell Globemedia’s $1.7 billion bid for Chum Television, announced July 12.

Be sure to read the comments on both her blog and her piece.

Regular reader Sanj sent along a few links worth exploring. Here's Bear604's funny (but not-so-haha-funny) predictions on a CTVified media landscape. My Point compares and contrasts the diversified TV station ownership in Ontario 21 years ago with today's converged, consolidated and concentrated industry. It's an eye-opening post. Used to be there were 31 Ontario stations with 16 organizations claiming ownership. Since?

The number of owners dropped to 15 in 1987 with Frontenac and Kawartha being bought by Power Corporation. Baton bought Bushnell in 1989, Mid-Canada and Huron in 1990, and the stations owned by Blackburn in 1992. They went on to merge with CAP in 1996. Western International Communications (WIC), who bought Niagara in 1993, was bought by Global in 2000. CHUM bought several stations owned by Baton in 1997. Baton became CTV Inc. in 1998, and was itself bought by Bell Globemedia in 2001. And now, in 2006, CHUM is bought by Bell. So, as it stands now, there are 34 stations spread out over 10 owners (average 3.4 stations per organization).

Here's part of a first-person account published in the Winnipeg Free Press (sub. req'd.) by Glen Kirby, former co-anchor of Citytv's former 6 o'clock newscast there. Like nearly 300 other CHUM staffers, he was cruelly cut last week, as was his show. (H/t to A.D.R.)

WE were assembled in the very room where the crime was allegedly perpetrated night after night after night. Loosely gathered on the studio floor, we were told we had failed. Our services were no longer required. CityTV management cancelled our nightly newscasts at 6 and 11 -- effective immediately. No fond farewell. No final "thanks for watching." No goodbyes.

They said too few people were tuning in to justify the cost of putting our fourth-rated newscasts on the air. CityTV had a new strategy -- stop trying, stop competing with the other local television stations for a slice of the news audience.

So they sacked the programs and the staff, including me. But let's not dwell on the lost jobs. CityTV's abdication raises questions about the responsibility of a local television station to its public. And let's not forget the loss of a viable voice and perspective in this community because of media concentration.

News programming used to be a social commitment. Stories would reflect the community and its values, not unlike a politician elected to represent the ideals of his or her voters. A TV station's identity was forged largely through the faces, attitudes and responsibilities of its news division.

Now, the overriding concern of every TV program is to make money. Cheap syndication replaces more expensive local news content. The ability to reflect one's community through educating, enlightening stories is tarnished by ratings-driven titillation. New York Times columnist Frank Rich wrote of "a 20-year trend in which the media ... have steadily replaced journalistic standards with those of show business."

<SNIP>

Less than a month after a Canadian Senate committee warned against increased media conglomeration, the last of the so-called "independent" TV networks in this country is apparently being gobbled up by the acknowledged big dog on the block. And at the very moment Bell Globemedia was telling the public about its plan to buy CHUM's handful of television stations sprinkled through cities like Winnipeg, and "make the united company a stronger national champion in broadcasting," I was ushered into the news studio with nearly 20 other employees (more than 280 across Canada) and told the news was no longer needed.

The government's broadcast licensing agency must still give its blessing to what the astute politicians predicted will be a country "poorly served if as few as one, two or three groups control substantial portions of the news and information media in particular markets or within the country as a whole".

As we were being fired, there was anger, resentment and even tears. Most of those let go were young, earning little more than minimum wage, with precious little job experience. They had hoisted news cameras and worked in flickering edit booths making the magic that is television news. They had started at the station full of hope and hard work looking to carve a career in a business that's renowned for egos and empty promises.

I am sad for my friends who have lost their jobs because the sacred trust was squandered for all these years by business owners who, in the end, pronounced the rancid mess unsalvageable. I am sad for the people in Manitoba who have lost one more choice for news. Others can more eloquently speak to the apparent evils of media concentrations but I will suggest fewer are not better. A runner surging in fourth place makes the three ahead work harder.

And finally, I am sad for not receiving the opportunity to say goodbye and thank you for inviting us into your living room each night. On that final newscast, I would have said the end came quickly, and tried my best to offer information of value.

Finally, a memo from CEO Peter Viner being circulated over at CanWest MediaWorks where they must be spinning as fast as they can. Here are bits of it.

It could mean our biggest competitor will become bigger. The CHUM acquisition would give Bell Globemedia more buying power, however, the outcome of this bid will only be known in about 12 months time.  Either way, we need to continue to look at how we become better and smarter at what we do.

The media industry continues to become more and more integrated, merging the worlds of print, online, radio, and television. Although we are most often focused on our individual operations on a day to day basis, I encourage each of you to take some time to consider how best to work together across our portfolio of assets to boost the value we offer both consumers and advertisers.

As Canada's largest and most diversified media company, we offer consumers two conventional networks, plus specialty channels, radio stations a number of strong newspaper and online properties.  We are uniquely positioned to provide our advertisers with truly integrated and creative media opportunities across regions and across some of Canada's strongest media brands.

I'd like to highlight some of our key results from the last three months and provide you with some direction as we pass the midway point of 2006.  My goal is to keep you better informed of our progress and to outline what we all need to do to move the business forward.

<financial boilerplate>

At the corporate level, we are focusing on four major areas for operational improvement:

1. Strengthening online.  Our goal is to grow our online business and become as much as a leader in this area as we are in print and television.  We need to continue to look for opportunities to blend these media to provide maximum value to our consumer and advertising clients.

2. Increasing advertising revenues through a revitalized marketing approach. This includes providing more research and information to our customers, more information about our viewers and readers, gaining better knowledge from consumers about what they want, and ensuring we can best market the value of our media to our advertising clients.
   

3. Improving the infrastructure of both our print and television businesses.  We have to become more efficient to remain competitive over the long term.  There are a number of initiatives already underway on this front; however, we must continue to look for opportunities to leverage technology to improve our infrastructure and drive the business forward.

4. Rethinking content distribution across platforms.  Are we meeting consumer needs by providing what they want to know, where and when they want to get it?  We need to think of ourselves as a content delivery & entertainment organization, not just a newspaper, television or online company.

We have a number of solid operational improvement projects currently underway, including:

* The creation of digital newsrooms in Vancouver and Toronto which will allow us to streamline news production, move us from an analog to a digital network and allow us to repurpose our news into other platforms (Internet, ipods, digital billboards, and any new technologies that develop).
   

* The S4M traffic and sales project which will see our broadcast division replace their outdated and largely manual core systems and business processes which are related to Program, Sales and Traffic and Promotion Management.  This new system will enable us to dramatically improve our customer service and our ability to confirm and book sales contracts in real time, reduce operating costs, drive efficiencies, and increase sales.
   

* The rollout of a company-wide intranet this fall which will help us to automate and streamline many of our manual processes, improve efficiencies and better share useful information throughout our organization.

Then comes a bunch of rah-rah, go team go, stuff.

What's missing is talk of improving journalism.

Which is what is worrying about this media marriage any way you look at it.

But I don't know the solution. You can't force a private company not to merge, even if it's regulated. You can't keep it unmerged and allow it to run into the ground, can you?

UPPITY DATE: Former Citytv political correspondent Adam Vaughan, whose dad Colin was a Citytv original, weighs in this week in Eye, the alternative weekly owned by Torstar which owns the Star which owns this blog (but not me.) (H/t to Sanj!)

Regarding concentration, the issues are obvious. Those involved in the merger claim that CFTO (CTV's local affiliate) and Citytv will remain separate, as will CP24 and Newsnet, the new company's competing news organizations. In the short term, this may be possible and it's certainly what the regulator (the CRTC) wants to hear, but in the long term, it's highly unlikely.

Membership in the Ottawa press gallery, for example, is expensive and most of the video you see on any network in the country is the result of a pool camera that members buy into and support. Why would any media company pay and staff two crews and two reporters and two editors and book two satellite feeds for the same story when one would do?

Citytv may claim it brings a Toronto perspective to the Hill, but in recent years, as obligations to serve all Ontario on CP24 have grown, and as Citytv looks to broaden its reach into the 905 region, the station has moved to covering the top national story out of Ottawa instead of digging up local angles ignored by national media.

The same can be said for City Hall and Queen's Park. Consolidation of resources makes sense on a corporate level and spending shareholder money to compete with yourself is never a long-term strategy in the private sector.

This means that it will get harder and harder to bring Toronto stories -- like the island airport or even the plight of the homeless -- to a national stage. It may become even harder to get local stories aired. It's not uncommon in newsrooms to have stories re-edited to protect corporate advertisers. In corporate media families as well, a negative story on one station can affect advertising sales on another media platform.

The CRTC -- who must approve the merger -- is not unaware of these dynamics and the major political and lobby groups are working on the problems linked to media concentration, too, but for the city of Toronto, the problems are even more serious than journalistic convergence.

There's more. Read it.