March 16, 2012
It was announced today that BCE (owners of Bell Media) would take over Astra Media. This is a significant move on several fronts and the big 3 media companies in Canada get bigger, and start making in roads in Quebec.
While Astral has a huge presence in English language media there is no disputing their presence in Quebec which is more significant that Bell.
The combined forces on the surface is a monster. Astral has 83 radio stations, most of them in rural areas, and 15 cable channels. With the aqusitiion Bell will have over 110 radio stations, and more than 30 cable channels.
The big question is what what will continue and what go away, or get sold. On television many of Astral assets are unique or in french. Their most noteable operations including the Movie Network, Family Channel, and Teletoon. Most like Bell would let those channel continue unchanged.
On the Radio front Bell and Astral now own seven stations in the Vancouver area. The most likely casualty could be Virgin radio. Bell owns the Beat radio against top 40 Virgin. The Shore may also be a casualty after being reformated following the buyout by Astral.
The only real change on TV could be on one of Canada's smallest TV stations. Astral owns CFTK in Terrace, BC and CDJC in Dawson Creek. At the moment these stations have very plain branding and rely heavily on the CBC for their schedule. These markets seems likely to become a CTV Two affiliate.
A lot of this is still month away from getting setteled.
No comments:
Post a Comment