At least 40 TV & 200 radio stations in Canada at risk of closing down: study

[ED2 144]

As many as 40 local television outlets and 200 Canadian radio stations could be forced to close in the next three years as the financial pressures faced by media companies intensify under the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests a new study from an industry advocacy group.

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters issued a report on Wednesday warning of potential closures and widespread job cuts as private TV and radio broadcasters face a cumulative projected revenue shortfall of up to $1.06 billion by the end of 2022.

Most vulnerable are the country's AM radio stations, the report said, as well as other independent private radio and TV operations in smaller markets across the country.

 

Full story: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/business_news/national_business/article_e0b04c82-f2db-5bd2-adac-2d2dc44f57c4.html

 

The full study from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters: https://www.cab-acr.ca/english/media/news/20/cmi_report_aug24.pdf

 

From my view, there are a few things working against local Canadian TV stations:

• Obviously, the rise of online news VOD services such as Netflix and Disney+
• The lack of market exclusivity in Canada. Unlike US markets where local stations are protected from out-of-town broadcast stations, viewers easily have access to almost every local Canadian TV station from outside markets on cable/satellite via "timeshift" packages.
• The wide availability of local US TV stations on BASIC cable/satellite packages, in addition to timeshift packages.
• Strict rules regarding prescription drug ads on television.

 

For a country our size (33 million, 6 TV markets of 1 million+ people), our local news schedules mostly resemble ones from the US, as opposed to the UK or Australia. I would really hate to see a reduction in local news programming but things are looking bleak for local TV here.

[ABC 7 Denver 1641]

On 8/26/2020 at 12:41 PM, ED2 said:

As many as 40 local television outlets and 200 Canadian radio stations could be forced to close in the next three years as the financial pressures faced by media companies intensify under the COVID-19 pandemic, suggests a new study from an industry advocacy group.

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters issued a report on Wednesday warning of potential closures and widespread job cuts as private TV and radio broadcasters face a cumulative projected revenue shortfall of up to $1.06 billion by the end of 2022.

Most vulnerable are the country's AM radio stations, the report said, as well as other independent private radio and TV operations in smaller markets across the country.

 

Full story: http://www.kelownadailycourier.ca/business_news/national_business/article_e0b04c82-f2db-5bd2-adac-2d2dc44f57c4.html

 

The full study from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters: https://www.cab-acr.ca/english/media/news/20/cmi_report_aug24.pdf

 

From my view, there are a few things working against local Canadian TV stations:

• Obviously, the rise of online news VOD services such as Netflix and Disney+
• The lack of market exclusivity in Canada. Unlike US markets where local stations are protected from out-of-town broadcast stations, viewers easily have access to almost every local Canadian TV station from outside markets on cable/satellite via "timeshift" packages.
• The wide availability of local US TV stations on BASIC cable/satellite packages, in addition to timeshift packages.
• Strict rules regarding prescription drug ads on television.

 

For a country our size (33 million, 6 TV markets of 1 million+ people), our local news schedules mostly resemble ones from the US, as opposed to the UK or Australia. I would really hate to see a reduction in local news programming but things are looking bleak for local TV here.

 

While the strict rules regarding prescription drug ads on television may work against local Canadian TV stations, I would love it if that was made the rule in the U.S. too. Also I'd like to see strict fact compliance on all political ads. Stations always do 'Truth Tests' during newscasts but run slanted ads anyway because of the profit incentive. That does more harm to the public than good.

[ED2 144]

I forgot two other factors:

 

- Cable TV penetration in Canada is fairly high

- Many of the owners of the major networks also own cable/satellite distribution systems 

[Yankees4life 547]

Oh boy...

[compubit 672]

The other thing is that the CBC effectively killed OTA outside of the cities with an actual CBC station - all of the translator networks are gone, and I suspect the other broadcasters have reduced or are reducing translators...

 

With satellite, you have access to almost every local station in Canada, As well as multiple US markets.

 

Jim

[ED2 144]

15 hours ago, compubit said:

The other thing is that the CBC effectively killed OTA outside of the cities with an actual CBC station - all of the translator networks are gone, and I suspect the other broadcasters have reduced or are reducing translators...

 

With satellite, you have access to almost every local station in Canada, As well as multiple US markets.

 

Jim

 

Yes, the private broadcasters are also getting rid of their translators, though not as swiftly as CBC did. There’s been applications from Bell Media (CTV) and Corus (Global) for this sort of thing in the last few years.