Breaking news: Bell buys Chum/City television

[NG]

Just saw it on Newsworld. The business anchor spoke in past tense as if the deal is already done.

Wonder if they'll bring back Harold and Moses....

[Rehan]

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNew...hub=TopStories

TORONTO -- Globeandmail.com, the Globe and Mail's website, quotes sources as saying Bell Globemedia is buying TV and radio broadcaster CHUM Ltd.

Shares in CHUM were halted Wednesday morning on the Toronto stock market, pending news.

CHUM's holdings include Toronto-based Citytv.

Bell Globemedia owns CTV and the Globe and Mail. CHUM owns 33 radio stations, 12 local television stations and 21 specialty television channels.

CHUM founder and controlling shareholder Alan Waters died in December. At that time his son Jim, CHUM's chairman, said the family was not interested in selling the company.

The Waters family controls about 90 per cent of CHUM stock.

[charliebrown]

interesting...i thought bell was reconsidering its strategy in media (CTV/globemedia)

The following issue(s) have been halted today:

Company CHUM Limited TSX Symbol CHM, CHM.b Reason Pending news Halt Time 9:22 EST

SOURCE: Market Regulation Services Inc.

[MrWizard]

Wow, so now only Global is left to compete with for Canadian news?

[atforum]

Wow, so now only Global is left to compete with for Canadian news?

what about cbc

[teknoluv]

Just heard from the news that Bell (which also owns Globe and Mail and CTV) is buying CHUM (incl. City TV).

http://today.reuters.com/stocks/Quot...BCE.XML&rpc=66

[Xon]

3 cheers for media monopoly! Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't CHUM own MuchMusic?

[lain]

Wow. I wonder what channels Bell is going to sell off/dump.

[lain]

3 cheers for media monopoly! Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't CHUM own MuchMusic?

Yes, and Bell owns MTV Canada (Which technically used to be owned by Craig which was bought by CHUM...and then CHUM changed it to Razer)

[7jaii]

Bwahahahahah! Moses pulled the wool over everyone's eyes. For years he's been throwing sH*t against the wall hoping it'd stick. His company over-expanded and kept starting digital channels that no one subscribed. In fact, his cable channels just re-sold advertising to each other: AND consumers flipped the bill paying CRTC mandated increases!

So now Moses looks like a genius...my hope is they fire all the staff responsible for all this crap. I mean, if you're showing "Blue Fridays" how difficult isn't to have more than 3 movies on rotation? Is there any original programming beyond Ed the Sock? And why are Much Music staff still working in Toronto? It's true, a room full of monkeys can do a better job than them.

[Rant] It kills me when Much Music lavishes praise and promotes 1hr special interviews with "flavour of the week" band. This is essentially "a long infomercial" that benefits the record label (driving sales), and Much Music fulfills "Original Content" to fulfill CRTC guidelines --> THEN 6 months later, Much Music highlights the band on "One Hit Wonder" or Le Fromage (or whatever they call it) and basically says their music is crap -- so why promote people like Paris Hilton? Jokes man, there's not integrity from bottom to top and now Moses is a rich bastard.

[NG]

what about cbc

Exactly. This just goes to prove a strong public broadcaster is needed now more than ever.

There will be a bit of a silver lining for those concerned about media monopolies since the CRTC is unlikely to allow CTV to own two TV stations in the same city so City TV Toronto/Vancouver and others will be sold off.

Hopefully Moses will put together a bid for City again like when Toronto 1 went on the block.

[gordholio]

To me, this is bad news.
To have many TV stations owned by only 2 companies - Bell Canada and Rogers - is not good IMHO.

[Hard_Taco]

This reminds me of mergers of Chapters and Indigo and last year's Famous Players and Cineplex, it is mergermania people.

[mlc2000]

Wow, so now only Global is left to compete with for Canadian news?

If it wasn't for the strong Australian arm of Canwest, their debt rating would have been downgraded.

Next time you watch that station, count up how many external advertisers you see. Do not include National Post ads or ads for other shows on Global.

Its scandalous, I can't understand where their revenue is coming from.

Source : Dominion Bond Rating Service puts CanWest debt under review

[winner2000]

Well first off, it's not official.

Secondly, the CRTC is going to give them one hell of a time if they want to get this merger done...they'll probably have to sell or shutter off 1/2 of the A-Channels, spin-off the rest to someone like Rogers (maybe "Omni" coast to coast?) and even sell off City to someone like the Toronto Star (who's been dying to get into the local TV biz)...either way should be interesting.