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CHPC Committee Report

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APPENDIX C: MEDIA CONCENTRATION IN CANADA

The CMCRP assesses media concentration in Canada using three tools: concentration ratios, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI)[1] and the Noam Index.

In summary, an HHI below 1,500 indicates that the media industry is unconcentrated, while an HHI of 2,500 indicates that the industry is highly concentrated

This table shows moderate concentration for newspapers and cable/satellite/IPTV television. The level of concentration for television is quite high overall, especially for pay and specialty TV. In the highly concentrated column are broadcast TV, pay TV, online advertising, mobile wireless services, search engines, mobile operating systems, desktop operating systems, and smart phone operating systems.

Concentration Rankings on the Basis of HHI Scores, 2015

Low concentration

HHI

Moderately Concentrated

HHI

Highly Concentrated

HHI

Magazines

201

Newspapers

1,920

Broadcast TV

2,723

Internet News

286

All TV: over-the-air conventional broadcast TV stations, specialty services and pay TV services.

1,855

Social Network Sites

2,762

Radio

1,041

Cable/satellite/IPTV

1,869

Mobile Web Browser Advertising

2,783

Internet Access

1,152

Pay & Specialty TV

2,105

Online Advertising

2,787

       

Mobile Wireless

2,791

       

Wireline

2,904

       

Desktop operating system

3,612

       

Mobile operating system

4,286

       

Search

5,890

       

Desktop Web Browser

8,357

Source: Canadian Media Concentration Research Project, Media and Internet Concentration in Canada Report, 1984-2015, November 2016, p. 43.


[1]              The Herfindahl-Hirschman method squares and sums the market share of each firm to arrive at a total. If there are 100 firms with a 1% market share each, then markets are highly competitive, while a monopoly exists when one firm has 100% market share. See the methodology used by the CMCRP.