Ad agencies, a media buyer and an academic weigh in on Bell Globemedia’s acquisition of CHUM Limited.

Fred Forster, president of media management company PhD:

‘I think it’s bad for advertisers, bad for marketers, and ultimately it’s going to cost consumers, because advertising prices will go up and get passed on. Nothing good can come of this.

‘For adults 25-54, BGM will control 54% of conventional ratings in primetime in Toronto and 36% of total purchasable ratings… And for total English Canada, it will be 51% of purchasable ratings in primetime.

‘What’s to stop BGM from saying, ‘if you want CSI, you’ve also got to take a bunch of other stuff’? So all of a sudden we won’t have a whole lot of ability to go elsewhere.’

Theresa Treutler, SVP media director at the Doner Canada ad agency:

‘[BGM’s] bargaining position with the U.S. suppliers will be good when they go shopping for programs in L.A., because they’ll do so with much more money and clout.

‘But as far as pricing is likely to go for our clients, this puts more power in the hands of fewer people, so negotiability will probably be more difficult for us.’

David Cairns, director, communications and planning, at ad agency Dentsu Canada:

‘The cultures of Bell Globemedia and CHUM could not be more different. One of the things that’s always defined CHUM/Citytv is the multicultural makeup of their reporters. Comparing that to what we see on [CTV’s] CFTO is like comparing rye bread to white bread.

‘All that energy and vibrancy that made Citytv might well be replaced with more bland American programming, and then advertisers will chase those audiences and all there will be on television are the sorry excuses that pass for programming these days – somebody putting in a new garden plot or people weeping because somebody has surprised them with a new rec room.’

Nick Barbuto, director of interactive, Cossette Toronto ad agency:

‘We don’t anticipate having fewer opportunities than before to find creative ways of putting our messages in front of consumers. In fact, we hope that this new [conglomerate broadcaster] will move from just adopting things that are successful in other parts of the world to becoming a trail-blazer in bringing new stuff to market.’

Brendan Calder, adjunct professor of strategic management at University of Toronto’s Joseph Rotman School of Management:

‘This [deal] just might be the death knell of [the] CRTC, because it’s so big and so complicated that the regulators might not be able to figure out how to regulate it. So we could end up with an open market and a whole bunch of people providing broadcasting in Canada… with the consumers deciding how many stations they want and what they want to see [broadcast] on them.’

Quotes originally appeared in a July 18 Media in Canada story.