HERITAGE COMMITTEE: Bell explains why local news needs help, now

By Perry Hoffman

OTTAWA – The local news business, while still attracting eyeballs, has ceased working from a financial perspective, Bell Canada told a Parliamentary committee on Tuesday. Echoing its appearance in front of the CRTC earlier this year, the company argued in front of MPs that creating a fund dedicated to local news programming would definitely help counteract falling advertising revenue.Speaking at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, Wendy Freeman, president at CTV News, noted that 2011 advertising revenue from private Canadian conventional TV stations has declined by $325 million, $91 million at Bell Media stations alone. The last broadcast...