[BC] Foreign Ownership

[Vernon Kuehn]

At 02:40 PM 4/11/2008, rameuser wrote:

>That is an interesting question. The first foreign might be 
>Canadians. Two things could happen; the first would be the better 
>stations near the border would be purchased and programmed for 
>Canada avoiding CRTC rules. The second thing would be stations 
>purchased either to be moved or shut down in order to improve other 
>Canadian stations.
>
>The other foreign ownersgip would be by some of the major world wide 
>groups. They would probably make long term investments and 
>broadcasting might be better off.

When I first read the original question as posted,  I had NEGATIVE thoughts.

Then I read the post where someone suggested there are international 
investors who look at the long-haul rather than short term.

Then I thought back to the pharmaceutical company my wife used to 
work for.  The company was purchased by a major German 
company.    Some good things happened.  Some not so good things 
happened.  Then this period developed where people begin to think of 
the Germans as tough task-masters.  Then as the company matured some 
of the critical people were sent on short term assignments to Germany.

When they returned another picture begin to appear.  "Those people 
are not task-masters.  They're kind of laid back.  They have BEER in 
the 'fridge in the break room."

Then somebody put it together.  They typically hired a CEO of the 
American operations who was American.  These Americans who 
interviewed apparently tried to out-promise one another on the 
results they could achieve.  The Germans picked the one they most 
liked and then he set about to deliver performance something close to 
what he promised in the interview process.

It wasn't the foreign investors who were the tough task masters.

So,  if we allowed foreign ownership of broadcasting,  who might be 
standing in line begging to be the CEO?  It might be that we would 
never see a change at the employee level.  Just more of the Same Ol' 
S............