Moreover AOL and especially Time Warner have been at the forefront of culture industry transnationalisation. Time Warner's transnational business activities are already legion - and growing fast. Its CNN unit, for example, is accessible around the globe, and has kept its audience in the face of mounting competition by successfully regionalising its programming. That gives them two revenue streams - exports and local artists. The country's Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission now contemplates loosening its domestic content rules for television and radio broadcasters, if the latter are found to be at a competitive disadvantage against new media produced in the US and distributed to Canada over the internet.
Media history is littered with rosy forecasts - and bleak realities.
The internet's decentralised structure makes a fully-fledged takeover of the medium by any one company impossible. But the current deal suggests this may not matter much. By accelerating the prevailing trend toward cross-media gigantism, it may sound a death knell for an open and independent internet. Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. If you appreciate the information we provide, please support our work.