Bell Media planning cuts to CTV, BNN Bloomberg following BCE layoffs, sale of 45 radio stations

Thursday's round of job cuts is BCE's largest in nearly 30 years

CBC.ca
Feb. 9, 2024

Bell Media is ending multiple television newscasts and making other programming cuts after its parent company announced widespread layoffs and the sale of 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.

News stations such as CTV and BNN Bloomberg would be affected immediately, according to an internal memo sent to Bell Media employees on Thursday.

The memo, signed by Dave Daigle, vice-president of local TV, radio and Bell Media Studios, and Richard Gray, vice-president of news at Bell Media, said weekday noon newscasts at all CTV stations except Toronto would end.

It is also scrapping its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts on weekends at all CTV and CTV2 stations except Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

Daigle and Gray said "multi-skilled journalists" would replace news correspondent and technician teams reporting to CTV National News in Alberta, Manitoba, Quebec and Atlantic Canada, while other correspondent changes would be made in Ottawa.

Earlier in the day, Bell Media's parent company BCE Inc. announced it was cutting nine per cent of its workforce.

The company announced Thursday in an open letter signed by chief executive Mirko Bibic that 4,800 jobs "at all levels of the company" would be cut. Fewer than 10 per cent of the total job cuts are at Bell Media specifically.

How do you feel about the Bell Media cuts? Will it change how you get your news? Send an email to ask@cbc.ca.

This round of job cuts is BCE's largest in nearly 30 years, Bibic added during a Thursday conference call.

Some employees have already been notified or were to be informed Thursday of being laid off, while the balance will be told by the spring. Bibic said the company will use vacancies and natural attrition to minimize layoffs as much as possible.

Bell is also ending evening programs The Debate, This Hour and Top 3 Tonight on CTV News Channel, which will be replaced by a four-hour news broadcast on weeknights beginning at 6 p.m.

At BNN Bloomberg, weekday daytime programming is "being streamlined" to reduce the number of separate broadcasts.

Daigle and Gray also said W5 will shift from a standalone documentary series to a "multi-platform investigative reporting unit" featured on CTV National News, CTVNews.ca and other news platforms.

Heritage minister 'extremely disappointed' in decision
"I am extremely disappointed in Bell Canada's decision for many reasons," said Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge during a press conference.

"In the past decade, when acquisitions were allowed for those big companies to acquire television stations or radio stations, it came with the promise that they would deliver on news content. And today, they are backing [away] from that promise."

It marks the second major layoff at the media and telecommunications giant since last spring, when six per cent of Bell Media jobs were eliminated and nine radio stations were either shuttered or sold.

The company will divest 45 radio stations to seven buyers: Vista Radio, Whiteoaks, Durham Radio, My Broadcasting Corp., ZoomerMedia, Arsenal Media and Maritime Broadcasting. The sales are subject to CRTC approval and other closing conditions.

The stations being sold are in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada.