Thursday, June 16, 2016

CRTC shifts $90-million to support local television news

The Globe and Mail's James Bradshaw writes:
"The federal broadcast regulator is reshuffling support for local television, promising up to $90-million in existing annual funding could be shifted to support local news programs, many of which are suffering from dramatic shifts in the media landscape.
"But to get their share, the largest companies will have to keep all their stations open.
"A new framework released on Wednesday by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is designed to keep current levels of local news programming on air as local broadcasters endure steep declines in advertising revenue and the threat of stations going out of business.
"The CRTC’s review of local and community TV, which launched last September, was always going to be a zero-sum game. The regulator has insisted from the start that “there is sufficient funding within the broadcasting system” to sustain quality local programming. The new policy will shift more of those dollars to the creation of local news programs, mostly at the expense of public-access community channels."

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