CHCH TV cancels tonight’s newscast; station future uncertain
Hamilton Spectator
By Susan Clairmont
CHCH news staff is waiting to find out the fate of their station after being told there will be no 6 o'clock newscast tonight.
An announcement to staff is expected at 4 p.m., by email, sources inside the CH newsroom say. The fear is the station is shutting down or being dramatically reduced.
Employees began asking questions this morning after money was unexpectedly deposited in some employees' bank accounts. One staffer — who does not want to be identified — says the amount was equal to about two paycheques.
The station is owned by Channel Zero in Toronto.
One staffer, who didn't want her name used because she was clinging to the hope she might still have a job on Monday, said the mood is "awful."
As of 2:45 p.m. people were still optimistically working to file stories, she said.
No joke. Reduced local news, lots of layoffs. CHCH is an independent tv station and can not compete with the media giants like Global , CTV and CBC. They have filed for bankruptcy.
Not all that shocked by this. When you consider even a money rich company like Rogers pulled the plug on their CITYNews channel a few years ago - because of how expensive it is to fill so many hours with local news - and in view of all the other cutbacks and layoffs that have been happening at all the Big Boys within the industry with both Rogers and Bell Media (CTV/TSN) laying off hundreds of employees in recent months.
I've always wondered how CHCH could afford providing 80+ hours of local news programming each week knowing how much the industry is struggling with people getting their news from online sources.
I wonder if this impacts the OUA football coverage in 2016 that CHCH and the OUA announced a few weeks ago.
A real shame and while I'm no Tim Bolen fan to the point I actually change the channel when he is on, I don't wish that even he loses his job in all honesty.
Wow that's too bad, CHCH has had a long and good running history of broadcast in the Hamilton and Golden Horseshoe market but in recent years it's been very difficult and a highly competitive market to compete in and stay alive.
I feel sorry as well for the many good and talented staff that will lose positions with CHCH and change the media landscape of the area.
I'm sure many recent decisions by TSN, Bell media and other networks to layoff staff or discontinue programming has had a ripple effect on the broadcast industry in Canada with less revenue from advertisers and increased activity from the internet and other media.
It's very unfortunate, especially for the employees affected, but the math just doesn't support a high cost format like a news station with weak, mostly local advertising revenues. They aren't the first, and won't be the last. CKVR in Barrie has had a similar history. It is about as long serving as CHCH, went through several iterations/ ownership setups/ network affiliations, and is now really just a pale, warmed over, canned CTV distributor, with very little original local content. Hell, the morning news is a repeat of last night's! Same sort of thing at CKWS in Kingston and CHEX in Peterborough. Many other examples. Love the internet, but it really has crushed local TV and hurt print dailies.
Yup, Internet is here to stay and the trick for everyone and all companies is to figure out how to deal with it. People want information free and cheap and I think advertisers are also feeling the same way.
I’ve been hearing from people that not viewing CHCH
Via a Boycott
Will Kill the Local TV In Hamilton this is not True
They have Money what did was go Bankrupt to Kill Creditors Off
there was no severance to Staff at CHCH Fired
Some there 20 30 and 40 years.
They Started a New Company
This is a shell GAME
Canada need to change it laws so this cant happen to good People
By Joining me Boycott of CHCH and Channel Zero
You are Telling the Management we don’t support this
Please Watch my Video then sign the Petition
That would be a CRTC decision. I can’t see why they would allow it, but, anything can happen. I’m pretty sure it would not be allowed as Toronto already has many TV stations and does not need another.