TORONTO – After consolidating master control operations in Toronto and Calgary over the past few years, CanWest MediaWorks told staff today that it’s taking the consolidation one step further and will eliminate master control in Toronto this August.
"As most of you are aware, the decision was made to consolidate the master control operations of CanWest MediaWorks and over the past few years, these operations have been consolidated into Toronto and Calgary. This consolidation has allowed the organization to maximize technological efficiencies, streamline the operations and reduce costs. Most major broadcasters are taking similar steps to remain competitive," says today’s memo to employees from Peter Ashkin, CanWest MediaWorks’ president, technology group and business ventures and John O’Connor, vice-president, national broadcast engineering.
"Upon further review, we have determined that we are in the position to consolidate all of our operations into one facility which will allow us to gain further efficiencies. As our Calgary facility has a fully established and automated master control operation, it has been selected as the location in which to centralize these operations. As a result, we had to make the very difficult decision to eliminate a number of positions in Toronto in the Broadcast Operations area. This will unfortunately impact a number of employees who have over the years made valuable contributions to Global Television."
The move will likely cause the elimination of 30 full time and 10 contract employees in Toronto at Global’s office on Barber Greene Road in Don Mills.
The transfer of the master control functions to Calgary is scheduled to be completed for August 31st and all positions in Toronto will be needed until that time, says the memo.
The move means that Global Ontario, Global Quebec, Global Maritimes, CH Hamilton, CH Montreal, and Global HD will all be operated out of Calgary. The move is a bit of an anomaly among broadcasters as all other broadcasters – who have also consolidated master control – have done so in Toronto.
The company’s specialty channels (Prime, Xtreme Sports, Deja View, Lonestar, MenTV) will remain operated out of Winnipeg.
A call to CanWest MediaWorks for clarification has not yet been returned. Surf back to www.cartt.ca for more as this story develops.
