Friday, September 10, 2010

What do the players want from this mega-deal?

The CRTC will decide, but it will have to ask itself this question too. Why? Many will say it's an improvement on having BCE, Thomson and Torstar all sleeping in the same bed at CTVglobemedia. For BCE, struggling to regain communications preeminence in the world of wireless, it may make sense to be the sole exploiter of the influence of CTV. Rogers, after all, makes Bell and Telus look like monkeys with its non-stop promotion on cable. Will this induce Telus to think about merging with (selling to) Bell? A regulatory Hail Mary perhaps, but maybe worth a try. For Thomson, there's a kind of "going-home" quality to taking full control of the Globe and Mail. At a working grunts level, and notwithstanding a 15% BCE stake in the newspaper, what this means is that CTV and Globe reporters will be able to dislike each other again, with coverage reflective of their mutual disrespect. Excellent. TPG

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