A new Senate report on the state of Canada's media calls for an ad-free CBC and limits on market share for giant media companies.

Here's the links to Vol. I and Vol. II.

Here's an excerpt from The Globe and Mail story:

“In general, the Committee has found that Canadians remain well served by their news gathering organizations,” the report, issued Wednesday, said. “There are, however, areas where the concentration of ownership has reached levels that few other countries would consider acceptable.”

The report was met with skepticism by industry members. Gary Slaight, chief executive officer of Toronto-based Standard Radio Inc. said evaluating the footprint of a media company is difficult because there are many ways to determine market share, including revenue and audience size.

“There's a whole bunch of pieces in the pie, so I'm no really sure what they're getting at,” he said. “And with audiences being so fragmented now, I think we're headed toward less media consolidation anyway.”

Spokesmen for CanWest Global Communications Corp. of Winnipeg and CTV Inc. of Toronto declined comment on the report. However, one industry official echoed Mr. Slaight's concern that market share is a debatable number.

The report points out that Canada has a number of regulations designed to prevent foreign ownership of Canadian media, but few rules governing high levels of concentration of ownership of media properties within the country.

However, the committee also acknowledged an argument raised by some of Canada's biggest media companies in recent years that consolidation of news outlets can make them more financially viable.

“The current situation ... is the result of a long and often difficult history of efforts by individuals to build strong and profitable news organizations,” the report says.

Sen. David Tkachuk said the committee is concerned about the concentration of media ownership, but that it's not an easy thing to change. “The horse is out of the barn,” he said.

The committee began looking at the industry in the wake of several major media deals, including CanWest's acquisition of most of Canada's major daily newspapers. Other major deals have included the creation of Bell Globemedia, which owns the CTV television network and The Globe and Mail.

Disclosure: I work for CTV.ca News and formerly worked for Globe Interactive-turned-Bell Globemedia Interactive.

Here's some tidbits from the CP story on TheStar.com:

Working journalists praised it while newspaper bosses panned it as an assault on freedom of the press. There was no immediate comment from the Harper government, which will have to decide whether to implement any or all of the report — or shelve it along with so many past studies of the state of Canada’s media industry.

The latest document is the product of three years of study by the Senate’s transport and communications committee. It concludes that Canadians are generally well-served by their news-gathering organizations.

However, in some areas of the country, the report says “the concentration of ownership has reached levels that few other countries would consider acceptable.”

“An important element of a free press is that there be a variety of different sources of news and opinion,” the report states.

It recommends beefing up the Competition Act to require an automatic review of media mergers whenever certain unspecified thresholds are exceeded.

“The country will be poorly served if as few as one, two or three groups control substantial portions of the news and information media in particular markets or within the country as a whole.

“In simple terms, there is a public interest in having a plurality of owners. There is also a public interest in complementing private-sector news organizations with a national public broadcaster.”

The report recommends that the CBC stop trying to compete with private broadcasters, that it cease coverage of professional sports and the Olympics and gradually phase out commercials. It calls on the federal government to boost the CBC’s almost $1-billion annual funding level to make up for the loss of about $400 million a year in advertising revenue.

“We have come to the conclusion that CBC-TV in particular, in both official languages, is in danger of losing its way. It’s trying to be all things to all people,” Liberal Senator Joan Fraser, a former print journalist who chaired the committee, told a news conference.

As proof, she pointed to the CBC’s decision to bump The National, its flagship news program, to make room for a new American reality show this summer.

“They made our case for us.”

CBC spokesperson Katherine Heath-Eves said the broadcaster welcomes a discussion about its role and mandate. But she stressed the CBC couldn’t eliminate advertising without a firm commitment that government would fill the resultant “hole in our funding.” ...

The committee’s proposed limitations on media ownership met with even more resistance.

“They say that government has to regulate news to ensure diversity of views and that’s just wrong,” said Anne Kothawala, president of the Canadian Newspaper Association.

“There’s no role for government in regulating the news media . . . That’s what freedom of the press is all about.”

We’re not saying big is bad,” said Liberal Senator Jim Munson, a former CTV reporter.

“We’re just saying the public has a right to be heard when big gets even bigger, and that’s what we’re talking about with this review mechanism.”

The committee deliberately did not specify the threshold that must be exceeded to trigger a merger review, although the report notes that 35 per cent of market share is the norm for Competition Bureau reviews in other industries.

Fraser said the committee decided it would be better to be flexible and let the government deal with media mergers on a case-by-case basis.

A company that owns the only newspaper and the only TV station in a small town may be doing a public service, Fraser said, whereas it wouldn’t be in the public interest to have one company monopolize newspaper and TV audiences in a large city like Toronto.

The report does not recommend any retroactive action be taken to reduce existing concentration of ownership, even though Munson said the committee heard “worrisome” tales from some journalists, particularly in New Brunswick where the Irving family owns all three daily newspapers as well as community papers and broadcast outlets.

“There is a prevailing feeling amongst some journalists in Atlantic Canada of self-censorship, that some are afraid to write what they actually think is right because they work in an environment where there is one dominant player.”

Conservative Senator David Tkachuk said the committee heard similar concerns in Vancouver, where CanWest Global owns both daily newspapers and the most-watched suppertime TV newscast.

Here's the Canadian Media Guild's reaction.

I'm off to bed, but if you find any other decent reaction, let me know by leaving a comment below or e-mailing blog-dot-billd-at-gmail-dot-com. Thanks!