Telecom giant Bell has announced plans to take control of Astral Media, one of Canada’s largest media companies.1 Owning more media content creates a profit incentive for Bell to push content that it owns or restrict access to other content it doesn’t control it gives Bell a stranglehold over the media content we consume and delivery of our daily communications.

As Carlton University communications professor Dwayne Winseck says:  “Those who control the medium shouldn’t control the message”  It would been the control of distribution and content until one roof.

An example of how Bell can control the message:  A few rival telecom firms are running expensive ads to defeat this deal.  But Bell’s TV network waited 26 days to show the ads, and gave in just a day before the CRTC hearings began in Montreal.  This shows their already huge power over content and distribution.

Go to STOP THE TAKEOVER, to vote against this going ahead.

References:  Ellen Roseman, The Toronto Star and Stop the Takeover, Open Media, saynotobell