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Originally Posted by shreddog
Another way to look at it is that maybe, just maybe, less and less people get their news, local or not, from broadcast tv. I'm too lazy to look, but from my memory, there were no markets in Canada where CBC local news was number one. Often they were 3 and below. Now if the number one or number two broadcaster is cutting back, perhaps there is a reason?
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They're #1 in Prince Edward Island, as they're the only locally based newscast there. I would assume also #1 in the Territories as CTV and Global do not operate up there, though they do have APTN.
Quote:
Originally Posted by shreddog
Anyway, I hate to see the demise of local news/media as I genuinely believe we (Canadians as a whole) will be worse off without it, but my guess is that in thee markets where CTV is retrenching CBC WILL NOT se a spike in viewership. rather I think we will see the overall eyeballs in the market continue to decline.
Even if CBC was the only game in town, I don't think that the numbers will go through the roof. Broadcast media is dying (or changing if you want to be kind), and broadcasters need to adapt.
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It's unlikely CBC will see increases because for the most part, the newscasts being eliminated are not ones that CBC competes with as CBC doesn't do local noon newscasts, and they have very limited local weekend news, depending on the market. They might see a tiny bump on Saturday at 6:00 or Sunday at 11:00 in those markets they do news at those times (such as Vancouver outside of the NHL season), but Global is likely to benefit far more, especially in Western Canada where Global News performs well.
An area where CTV has failed miserably compared to local TV in the United States is live streaming. Many local US stations have their own app and livestream their newscasts for free online, supported by ads of course. CTV has stubbornly refused to livestream their local newscasts except to users who log in with a cable/satellite provider login, which fewer and fewer Canadians have. Global, on the other hand, livestreams all their local newscasts for free on Pluto TV, and CBC does the same on CBC Gem. I believe CityNews does the same but I'm not 100% sure. My point being that CTV has missed out on ad revenue by gatekeeping their online live content. It is easier for me to get a live local newscast online from San Diego or Detroit than it is to get CTV Vancouver's 6:00 newscast live. For that reason I have a tough time having sympathy for the financial situation of Bell Media's news division.
Something else that often gets overlooked in these cutbacks is the online presence of these broadcasters. These broadcasters also publish written content online, and when reporters and other staff get cut back, that product also suffers.