When Media Consolidation Goes Bad
In Monday's Globe & Mail, two full pages in the first section battled it out for the public's vote either for or against carriage fees for TV content by cable and satellite companies. In one corner, Bell Canada Enterprises. And in the other, Bell Canada Enterprises.
Wha? Yes. CTV (owned by Bell Global Media) is up against Bell / Bell Aliant.
Today, Canadian media conglomerate Canwest (Global TV, The National Post, etc.) filed for bankruptcy protection.
Used to be that media outlets were local. Their owners lived in the same community - if not the same neighborhood - as their viewers, listeners and readers...and their employees and freelance contributors.
That's all changed in the past 30 years and instead of community owned media, we have conglomerates (and possibly ex-conglomerates). And a lot of ex-employees and progressively poorer freelancers.
On Saturday, the Canadian Freelance Union held it's first annual general meeting...and is now gearing up for a national recruitment campaign. The primary targets: rights and rates.
Media conglomerates, because of their broad reach and power, have effectively cut freelance incomes in half in just three decades while demanding - and getting - global, perpetual and even future rights to yet-to-be-invented methods of delivering content.
It's like buying one meal and demanding the deed to the restaurant.
Can the tide be turned? Hard to tell. But being poor - and getting poorer - while giving up your future income to eat does tend to concentrate the mind.
You can find more about the CFU at http://www.cfunion.ca/
- G
