The Community Media Fund That Never Was

Last April the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission conducted a hearing to review a two per cent cable levy (bringing in roughly $120 million a year) that four family-controlled cable monopolies -- Cogeco, Rogers, Shaw and Vidéotron -- have been mostly using as their own media slush fund. These corporations already earn a 25 per cent profit margin amounting to almost $2 billion each year, and both Rogers and Shaw have raised cable rates by more than 68 per cent in recent years.

If you haven't heard about this large community media fund, it's because it appears to have been mismanaged and put towards what many consider to be commercial television endeavors.