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On convergence.

Article Excerpt
Nothing is more compelling in business than a new Big Idea, and in media and communications circles these days it's convergence--the marriage of electronic data conduits, such as telephone and broadcast networks, to content providers, such as publishers and filmmakers. Canada's converged giants, having embraced the strategy at great cost, are now struggling to make it work.

The $104-billion (US) merger of AOL and Time Warner in the United States two years ago prompted a rash of takeovers here. Bell Canada bought CTV and the Globe and Mail, Quebecor bought Quebec's largest cable company (following an earlier purchase of the Sun newspapers), and CanWest Global took over Southam's big-city papers and many smaller ones from Hollinger.

Convergence--a concept in which size matters--is merely the latest rationale for combining media interests. It follows a complementary, longer-term trend of large newspaper and broadcast chains taking over smaller independents. With larger, centralized operations, costs can be cut and profits raised. What is also vital in convergence theory is to have exclusive use of creative content.

In Canada, after five years of frenzied acquisitions, very few hands now control most of the media and communications networks--a high level of concentrated ownership that has been abetted by laws that...

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