The CRTC has said it would be a “mistake” to allow a fully open market with foreign ownership of Canada's telecommunications or broadcasting industries.

Reflecting what many see as an antiquated view of the Canadian telecommunications and cultural landscape, CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told a House of Commons committee that allowing foreign control of either telecoms or broadcasting risks turning Canada into a "branch-plant communications industry."

The CRTC chairman said that more foreign participation could make sense, but that outright control would be a bad idea.

Von Finckenstein noted that with convergence and new media it would be impossible to separate out the content as it passes over traditional television, satellite, cable/DSL, or wireless broadband networks.

Such distinctions may have made sense in the past, but no longer apply: not only do some Canadian companies operate both as telecoms and broadcasters, but new media allows programs to be viewed on the internet or hand-held devices, and to be interactive.