A CRTC logo is shown in Montreal, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. Experts say BCE Inc.'s request that the CRTC waive local news and Canadian programming requirements for its television stations is the latest signal that Canadian journalism is under threat. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
TORONTO – Experts say BCE Inc.’s requests that the CRTC waive local news and Canadian programming requirements for its television stations is the latest signal that Canadian journalism is under threat.
One of Bell Media’s applications on June 14 requested the regulator drop requirements for spending on local news and on the number of hours per week that stations are required to broadcast locally reflective news in major and smaller markets.
It was filed the same day Bell announced it is cutting 1,300 positions, shutting or selling nine radio stations and closing two foreign bureaus amid plans to “significantly adapt” how it delivers the news in the face of rising financial pressure.
Colette Brin, director of the Centre for Media Studies at Laval University, says the request illustrates how television news outlets find themselves at a crossroads.
Bell’s filing noted its 35 local television stations branded as CTV, CTV Two, and Noovo plus three discretionary television news services – CP24, CTV News Channel and BNN Bloomberg – are under financial strain.
Brin’s recent research on the Canadian media landscape published earlier this month in a Reuters Institute report found around 40 per cent of the population still gets their news primarily through television.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2023.
Companies in this story: (TSX:BCE)
