TORONTO – The key to saving local news is the new fund earmarked to improve local TV programming in small markets, said the Canadian Media Guild (CMG).
The Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), announced by the CRTC last year and still under development, could be devoted to supporting initiatives to save local TV stations that CMG says “are being abandoned by the big media conglomerates”.
“What we’ve found over the last decade or so is that the structure of the big media companies has not been friendly to local programming,” said CMG national president Lise Lareau, in a statement. “There is no good reason that new money from cable and satellite should continue to prop up a model that hasn’t worked for local TV. It’s time to find new models, and the project at CHCH Hamilton is an excellent initiative that should be supported. We hope that other communities with stations at risk develop action plans that involve the use of this fund.”
The money for the fund will come from a percentage of cable and satellite revenues, and is expected to amount to $60 million in the first year. Of the total, $40 million will be devoted to English-language markets and $20 million to French-language markets of less than one million.
