OTTAWA – The “erosion” of local programming at CTV’s A-Channel stations “flies in the face of promises made when the company purchased the network”, says the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) in response to CTV’s announcement that it cut jobs and local programming at its ‘A’ Channel stations Tuesday.
"CTV’s license approval by the CRTC was partly based on the selling pitch that bigger is better – that the larger corporations would be able to nurture and protect the smaller stations," says Peter Murdoch, CEP’s vice president of media, in the statement. "Yet, at the first sign of bad times, it is the small communities and channels that pay the price. What happened to those promises?"
Murdoch said that CEP will ask the CRTC to release financial information from the broadcasters to help gage “the health” of individual stations.
"Right now, we only have the word of the self-interested executives as to where the problem really lies. We are entitled to know the facts," he continued.
