Media ownership in Canada is governed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), with regards to audiovisual media and telecom networks, as well as other agencies with more specific jurisdiction, in the case of non-broadcast media—like the Competition Bureau, with regards to competition matters and Department of Canadian Heritage regarding foreign investment in the cultural sector.
[2] These changes, among others, caused the Senate Standing Committee on Transport and Communications to launch a study of Canadian news media in March 2003.
)[3][4] The Senate Committee’s final report, released in June 2006, expressed concern about the effects of the current levels of news media ownership in Canada.
[3][4] The Senate report expressed particular concern about the concentration of ownership in the province of New Brunswick where the Irving business empire owns all the English-language daily newspapers and most of the weeklies.
"[5] The report provided 40 recommendations and 10 suggestions (for areas outside of federal government jurisdiction), including legislation amendments that would trigger automatic reviews of a proposed media merger if certain thresholds are reached and CRTC regulation revisions to ensure that access to the broadcasting system is encouraged and that a diversity of news and information programming is available through these services.
These acquisitions have been controversial; stations in smaller markets have frequently had their local news programming cut back or even eliminated.
Black's 1999 sale of the Hollinger papers resulted in an increase in the diversity of newspaper ownership, with new ownership groups such as Osprey Media entering the business, but was even more controversial because the CRTC, waiving its former rules against broadcasting companies acquiring newspaper assets, permitted Canwest Global to purchase many of the Hollinger papers.
For example, Bell Media owns most of the commercial broadcast outlets in Windsor, Ontario due to the city's unique circumstances.
The rule changes by the CRTC essentially preserve the status quo but there is one area that could see a big impact in years to come—the 45% cap on audience share—because this would limit how many specialty channels a broadcaster can own.
"[12] The CMCRP is an ongoing data-driven research effort assessing the ownership concentration of "more than a dozen sectors of the telecom-media-internet industries in Canada.
"[14] Industries assessed include: The principal investigator of the project is Dwayne Winseck, a professor at Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.