Hamilton Media

[omro]

Originally Posted by flar

^^I think we have a different Idea of what TV is.

For me, TV==the live stuff, like newscasts and event coverage but really when it comes down to it, the television model is simply a means to deliver audiences to advertisers. It is no longer effective in that respect except for major events like the superbowl. I think ultimately TV is dead because these too will be more effectively delivered over the "tubes" than the "airwaves". The rest of it--shows--can be downloaded, and I think PVRs are an interim solution because they are still based on fixed broadcasts. Eventually everyone will just get their content via fast downloads and watch it on their television set, BUT with no commercials (but note that very young people seem content to watch shows on their laptop screens with earbuds).

The average TV viewer is now around 55; the most sought after demographic for advertisers is younger than this. From a business standpoint, TV stations are no longer profitable. PVRs are a part of this too because the good ones cut out the commercials.

I totally agree with you. PVRs are an interim, but they also point the way. People don't want to be constrained by schedules anymore. You're totally correct, all "video" content is going to be downloaded or streamed in the future and I believe that even "live" content will be delivered in a similar manner. Why miss the beginning seconds of "live from the scene", when you can start the video stream after you've had time to make a cup of tea. The only thing that will be "live" will be the appearance of content mark on the display of the user interface that connects to the server saying that this stream is now viewable.

The channel paradigm is going to end for the most part. A few live 24 hour countrywide news services might still exist, which will feed into their own content deliverables. The latest headlines, weather, business news, etc. Soon it'll be a studio and genre paradigm. What do you want to watch made by this production company today?

I just recently gave away a good 200 VHS tapes to charity, from series I used to collect and films and so on. I'd been keeping onto them just in case I wanted to watch them again and to save myself having to buy the DVDs for something I watched infrequently. Pulling those tapes off the shelves, seeing the old price tags, just made me realise how much money I'd spent over the years and in essence, wasted. Each tape varied between £4.99 and £13.99 so if you median that at £9.50 a cassette, multiply by 200 - that's £1,900 and that's with pretty poor maths.

I rarely collect DVDs and refuse to buy into the whole Blu-Ray packaging. Both are equally expensive, dead formats. It's only a matter of time.

Don't underestimate advertisers, they've been around a long long time. They'll come up with something in the future. The most obvious would be some form of fixed advertising built into the User Interface of the system that is used to deliver your video content onto your television screen. A lot of online video streams force you to sit through a short advert before the content begins and there's no way to stop it. Another would be less subtle product placement within the content. In a few years time, I full expect to watch an episode of CSI: Albuquerque and hear to coroner say "the victim had been been drinking a caffeine free, diet cherry coca cola shortly before the fatal stabbing. At least they enjoyed that refreshing zero calorie drink before they died."

[Dundasguy]

Originally Posted by omro

I rarely collect DVDs and refuse to buy into the whole Blu-Ray packaging. Both are equally expensive, dead formats. It's only a matter of time.

Dead formats?

Blu-Ray and DVD offer a picture resolution you cannot get anywhere outside of a movie theatre. I don't think they're going anywhere.

[omro]

Originally Posted by Dundasguy

Dead formats?

Blu-Ray and DVD offer a picture resolution you cannot get anywhere outside of a movie theatre. I don't think they're going anywhere.

I'll say yes on that to Blu-Ray for now, but DVD is an interim and soon to be dead format. The quality of DVD is actually quite poor, many block colours are full of compression artifacts, which you can ignore, but are visible. Soon manufacturers will stop making DVDs and the only thing that'll keep the discs around longer is the ability for them to be played in multiformat players.

In the UK, you can watch HD films on demand via your cable provider for a cost less than the rental of a DVD or Blu-Ray from Blockbuster or equivalent. OK, they don't get the latest films as quickly, but the lag time is getting less and less. Give it a few years and you won't have a library of DVDs or Blu-Rays in your home, you'll have a link to a service which offers you the chance to watch whatever you want, whenever you want for a subscription fee - plus a pay per view fee towards the "new releases" for similar or perhaps even better quality than you can watch it now on your DVD or Blu-Ray player.

When that happens, all DVDs and Blu-Rays will be, are shelves and shelves of packaging taking up space. It happened to VHS. It happened to laser disc. It's happening to CDs in the iTunes era. These are just other formats waiting to die.

[Millstone]

Originally Posted by Dundasguy

Dead formats?

Blu-Ray and DVD offer a picture resolution you cannot get anywhere outside of a movie theatre. I don't think they're going anywhere.

First of all, no. Secondly, the Internet as a content delivery system will take optical media out of the picture once and for all by about 2015-2020.

[omro]

Originally Posted by Millstone

First of all, no. Secondly, the Internet as a content delivery system will take optical media out of the picture once and for all by about 2015-2020.

What he said!!

[Dundasguy]

Originally Posted by Millstone

First of all, no. Secondly, the Internet as a content delivery system will take optical media out of the picture once and for all by about 2015-2020.

A standard HD signal can display a resolution of 1080p maximum. In order to stream a movie on demand, you would require a reliable guranteed internet connection of about 30 Mb/s if your using heavy compression, 350Mb/s or so uncompressed. Streaming video transmission is clocked and cannot tolerate any delay or jitter and it cannot be buffered. It would be annoying to be watching a movie with errors blotting the screen every few minutes.

I can guarantee you that Bell or the cable companies cannot and will not be offering anything close to those speeds in 2020 or beyond. Most of the twisted pair copper infrastructure in the ground is ancient and is suseptible to everything from EM, radio, to water. Fibre to the home would be the only possibility and even that would be a stretch. It would require you download first and then view.

[flar]

Originally Posted by Dundasguy

It would require you download first and then view.

I think that's what people will be doing.

[Millstone]

Originally Posted by Dundasguy

A standard HD signal can display a resolution of 1080p maximum. In order to stream a movie on demand, you would require a reliable guranteed internet connection of about 30 Mb/s if your using heavy compression, 350Mb/s or so uncompressed. Streaming video transmission is clocked and cannot tolerate any delay or jitter and it cannot be buffered. It would be annoying to be watching a movie with errors blotting the screen every few minutes.

I can guarantee you that Bell or the cable companies cannot and will not be offering anything close to those speeds in 2020 or beyond. Most of the twisted pair copper infrastructure in the ground is ancient and is suseptible to everything from EM, radio, to water. Fibre to the home would be the only possibility and even that would be a stretch. It would require you download first and then view.

It's very brave of you to make a statement like "[this will not happen] in 2020 or beyond". That's 11 years away, and "beyond" is infinite.

Cable can already handle on demand. But I was referring to a "keep at home" method, like a USB key.

And cinemas far surpass DVD quality.

[omro]

Originally Posted by Dundasguy

A standard HD signal can display a resolution of 1080p maximum. In order to stream a movie on demand, you would require a reliable guranteed internet connection of about 30 Mb/s if your using heavy compression, 350Mb/s or so uncompressed. Streaming video transmission is clocked and cannot tolerate any delay or jitter and it cannot be buffered. It would be annoying to be watching a movie with errors blotting the screen every few minutes.

Compression algorithms are improving all the time. Who thought that DivX would enable a planet of downloaders to watch films in near DVD quality that fit onto a conventional CD.

Human beings are very tolerant. We've had VHS and DVD for a long time now, both are inferior A/V media compared to HD and I'm sure something will come along that makes HD look equally bad.

Not to advertise Virgin Media's V+ service yet further, I personally don't have it, but friends of mine do - combined with a nice 42" HD flatscreen. In the UK you can watch on demand HD films via V+. You can stop, start, pause, review, fast forward and watch the film again and again as many times as you want within a certain period of hours. There were no jitters or delays or anything in the films that I have seen on this service. After the film finished, they reverted back to the standard non-HD TV images and you could see the artifacts in the digitalTV that weren't present within the HD. However, stop looking for them and you stop noticing the artifacts again, which is why DVD became so popular.

[Dundasguy]

Originally Posted by omro

Compression algorithms are improving all the time. Who thought that DivX would enable a planet of downloaders to watch films in near DVD quality that fit onto a conventional CD.

Human beings are very tolerant. We've had VHS and DVD for a long time now, both are inferior A/V media compared to HD and I'm sure something will come along that makes HD look equally bad.

It's already here, it's called Super Definition, it will have a resolution equal to or better than a 35mm negative. A single stream of video would probably take up most of your cable bandwith, with audio you should be able to get 1 channel. Just think of the money you'll have on remotes.

Human beings aren't tolerant, North Americans are. Japan has had HDTV for over 20 years.

[SteelTown]

CanWest seeks financial saviour amid debt crisis
By SINCLAIR STEWART, ANDREW WILLIS and GRANT ROBERTSON AND TARA PERKINS
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20090220.RCANWEST20/TPStory/Business

February 20, 2009

Leonard Asper is scrambling to secure a financial lifeline for CanWest Global Communications Corp. before the end of the month to prevent his family-run media empire from sliding into bankruptcy protection.

Yet even if he is successful, the price of that lifeline could be steep. Some potential investors - including Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd.- want to take control of CanWest away from the Asper family in exchange for any cash infusion.

At least one investor weighing a proposal said it would insist that Mr. Asper step aside as chief executive officer and that he and his siblings eliminate the dual-class share structure that gives them control of the company, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Officials at some of CanWest's main creditors believe that if the company cannot find access to hundreds of millions of dollars in new credit within the next few weeks, it could be forced to seek protection from lenders and restructure under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. CanWest, which owes $3.9-billion, and its primary adviser, RBC Dominion Securities, have approached numerous institutional investors to gauge their interest in a deal.

The response from potential backers has been lukewarm, not merely because of CanWest's economic woes brought on by the recession, but because several creditors are jockeying for protection in any restructuring process.

CanWest's borrowing capacity was put on a tighter leash this month when a senior credit facility was cut back to $112-million from $300-million by Bank of Nova Scotia. The new limit is about $20-million above what CanWest has already drawn.

The limit is in place until next Friday and Mr. Asper is now trying to negotiate a new borrowing agreement by that date, in order to have the full amount of credit reinstated.

"Options on the table include some sort of recapitalization that would see creditors take a haircut, and the Asper family squeezed out," said one banker working on CanWest. "Leonard Asper ... is still focused on trying to find some sort of solution that salvages something for the family."

CanWest spokesman John Douglas said "we have ... a very structured process. It has checkpoints all along it, and one of those checkpoints is reaching an agreement with our senior lenders. That is where all the attention is being devoted right now."

CanWest's largest non-family shareholder, Fairfax Financial, is among investors that have expressed interest in a new capital injection to forestall bankruptcy protection. Bankers close to the company suggest Fairfax or other investors would have to inject about $300-million to be effective. A condition of such an investment by Fairfax would be a change in control at CanWest, according to sources.

Some other funds, including the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, have been approached by CanWest officials, but said they were not interested in investing in the media company, sources say.

Sources familiar with the matter said Fairfax is holding off on a proposal until it gets more information on the state of CanWest's financial health - something it has been unable to obtain thus far. Any proposal would require an investor to hammer out a separate agreement with Goldman Sachs, which is a partner in CanWest's specialty channels, a stable of assets that rank among the company's most prized properties.

CanWest borrowed heavily to acquire a nationwide newspaper chain and specialty television network, Alliance Atlantis Communications, bought in 2007 for $2.3-billion. Mr. Asper anticipated paying down loans with the cash flow that comes from advertising in near-monopoly properties.

But advertising spending has dropped sharply, leaving CanWest in breach of debt covenants.

CanWest's lenders, led by the Bank of Nova Scotia, are reluctant to push the company into CCAA protection, but are pushing Mr. Asper for a plan that will see their loans repaid, banking sources say. Options being discussed by lenders include parachuting in a restructuring expert, who would supervise the sale or closing of operations.

Mr. Douglas said the company is reviewing all strategic alternatives as part of its restructuring. Relinquishing control, either by stepping back from the CEO role or allowing an investor to acquire CanWest voting shares, is not a scenario Mr. Asper has been wiling to pursue so far.

In a CCAA filing, creditors would take the reins at CanWest, and the Asper family's control of the company, based in part on a dual share structure, would disappear.

[ryan_mcgreal]

Originally Posted by flar

when it comes down to it, the television model is simply a means to deliver audiences to advertisers. It is no longer effective in that respect except for major events like the superbowl.

I'd say TV is dead in the same sense that Paul Graham argues that Microsoft is dead: "not that Microsoft is suddenly going to stop making money, but that people at the leading edge of the software business no longer have to think about them."

Similarly, TV will carry on, but it will no longer be at the forefront of entertainment/news programming. Of course, that won't stop the people who make a living from TV from trying to hamstring the disruptive competition emerging in online media.

[hmagazine]

A warm hello to all members and friends of The Hamilton Association,


Our next free public lecture will be this Saturday, February 21,
beginning at 8 pm in the usual place, Room 1A1, Ewart Angus Centre,
McMaster University Medical Centre.

Our speaker this month will be Canadian journalist Ian Brown.

His talk is titled:

Everything But the News: A Journalist's Future

Ian Brown considers the fate of narrative journalism when newspaper
readership is declining, and media struggle to re-invent themselves in
an age of blogs, twitter and infotainment. He asks whether there is
still a place for well-told stories to help us understand human experience.

Ian Brown's accomplishments are as varied as his interests. He has
written for magazines such as Macleans; newspapers, notably the Globe
and Mail; hosted CBC Radio's late lamented literary program Talking
Books and still hosts TVOntario documentary programming. His feature
articles range from an hour-by-hour description of individual stories
played out over three days in a Toronto hospital, to a public
correspondence with L'Arche founder Jean Vanier about discovering
one's humanity. He has three published books, Freewheeling, about the
family dynasty behind Canadian Tire Corporation, Man Overboard: True
Adventures with North American Men, and an edited collection of
essays, What I Meant to Say. His next book, The Boy in the Moon, due
out this year, is about living with his son Walker who has a rare,
profound genetic disorder.

Please help us expand our audience by informing friends and colleagues
who might be interested in this presentation.

Tax receipts for the 2008 tax year will be available from our
treasurer, David Keane.

Hope to see you on Saturday!


Sincerely,

Aurelia Shaw
HAALSA Secretary ( [email protected] Tel. 905-527-0080 )

[ryan_mcgreal]

http://thespec.com/News/Business/article/519200

Hamilton Spectator to lay off 35
The Hamilton Spectator
Feb 24, 2009

The Spectator is laying off 35 staff across the newspaper in reaction to the global economic downturn and the resulting slowdown in the media industry.

"We're confident these reductions, while painful for our team, can be accomplished in a manner that will be invisible to our readers and advertisers," publisher Dana Robbins said yesterday.

Layoffs were also announced at the Record of Waterloo Region and the Guelph Mercury. The Spectator and its sister dailies are part of Metroland Media Group Ltd., a division of Torstar Corp.

The Spectator layoffs represent 30 full-time jobs, or 7 per cent of a staff complement of 430. The layoff affects positions in the editorial, circulation, advertising, production and business units.

"This is an extremely sad day for the union at The Hamilton Spectator," said Paul Morse, CEP Local 87-M chair. "These layoffs will cut deeply into a newspaper that has always provided highest-quality journalism."

Robbins said it was hoped the economic downturn would be "sharp and short, but it's ended up not being short, quite the opposite.

"There is not a company in Hamilton that is not facing similar circumstances.

"When our community suffers, The Spectator suffers, and that's what we're seeing."

David Estok, editor-in-chief, told newsroom staff that specific layoff notifications will be made shortly.

"This is, and always has been, a caring newsroom," Estok said. "Our thoughts and support will be with our colleagues who will be leaving."

Layoffs at the Record are equivalent to 20 full-time jobs in a staff complement of 272. At the Mercury, it's 13 of 85 full-time jobs.

[LikeHamilton]

CTV to close two Ontario stations

Reuters

TORONTO — Broadcaster CTV Inc. will shut a pair of its television stations in Ontario, citing “the current global economic crisis” and structural problems facing the conventional TV sector, it said Wednesday.

CTV, owned by privately held CTVglobemedia Inc., said it will not apply to renew the licences for the two stations when they expire at the end of August, 2009.

The stations operate under the A brand, offering network entertainment and local news programming in the Wingham and Windsor regions. CTV did not specify how many jobs will be lost as a result of their closing.
“The traditional economic model for Canadian television is broken,” Paul Sparkes, CTVglobe's executive vice-president of corporate affairs, said in a statement.

“Unfortunately, we may need to consider similar actions in other local markets given the current regulatory framework.”

In November, CTV cut 105 jobs and became yet another media company to reduce staff as the advertising market falters.

CTV rival CanWest Global Communications Corp. also cut broadcasting jobs last year and is now considering selling five conventional TV stations.

Broadcasters like CanWest and CTV have argued they deserve a share of the subscriber fees charged by cable and satellite companies for carrying their signals.

They say such a fee-for-carriage would help offset a drop in advertising revenues they have suffered as a result of the rise of cable and satellite services.

However, last October, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the federal regulator, turned down their requests.

“The financial pressures facing our conventional television operations are further compounded by the commission's decision to turn down requests to implement a fee-for-carriage regime for local television,” Mr. Sparkes said.

Woodbridge Co. Ltd., the Thomson family's private holding company, owns 40 per cent of CTVglobe, while Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan owns a 25 per cent stake, Torstar Corp. owns 20 per cent and BCE Inc. owns the remaining 15 per cent.

[SteelTown]

CTV says economic model for TV is broken, shuts two Ontario stations
3 hours ago
http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iPtX7M2YdDpZ7yFr4VFBsM2iuh1A

TORONTO — Canadian broadcaster CTV Television Inc. says it's shutting down two small Ontario television stations hurt by the struggling economy and a squeeze on advertising.

The broadcaster says it will not seek to renew the licences for stations CKNX-TV in Wingham and CHWI-TV in Wheatley and Windsor when they expire at the end of August.

The stations operate under the A-Channel brand and are in a part of southwestern Ontario hurt by auto layoffs, plant closures and streamlining of the manufacturing sector.

CTV said in a release Wednesday that the decision to close the stations reflects financial pressures at the company's conventional TV operations in the wake of the CRTC's decision last fall to deny fee-for-carriage charges that would have pumped more money into the industry.

'The traditional economic model for Canadian television is broken," Paul Sparkes, a spokesman for parent company CTVglobemedia (TSX:BCE), said in the announcement Wednesday.

'Unfortunately, we may need to consider similar actions in other local markets given the current regulatory framework."

Last week, CTV announced that it was putting CKX-TV Brandon in western Manitoba up for sale after the CBC decided it wasn't going to continue paying the company to carry its news and entertainment content.

CTV is warning that it'll pull the plug on the Manitoba station if another broadcaster doesn't buy it.

'I view (these announcements) as a poker game between CTV and the CRTC," said Ian Morrison, a spokesman for the watchdog group, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

'It's CTV putting pressure on the commission."

The latest developments involving over-the-air networks mark what some are calling a sea change in the Canadian television industry.

Last month Canwest Global Communications Corp. (TSX:CGS) decided to put its five E! channels up for sale, which sparked outrage in some local communities.

In Hamilton, a grassroots campaign has paired employees at CHCH-TV with other locals to rescue the station from being sold to a community outsider.

Instead the group is trying to keep the channel on the air with a new proposal to the CRTC later this spring.

'We (the group) have met and we have secured support from our local Members of Parliament, provincial legislature, local politicians," said Donna Skelly, a news anchor at CHCH and spokeswoman for the initiative.

'What we are proposing, is an all-news (station) - for the most part. It would be local . . . it wouldn't carry American programing."

Skelly said the group has created a five-year plan that is designed to make the station profitable.

However, turning a profit in this uncertain economy has been a challenge that big companies have failed to meet.

Last fall, broadcasters stormed from negotiations with the CRTC after the commission told Canwest, CTV and other private-sector stations that they wouldn't be allowed to charge cable and satellite distributors for carrying their channels.

Broadcasters called the decision unfair and warned that it could affect their operations.

Then earlier this month, the CRTC released a report which said that annual profits for private-sector conventional TV stations fell to a mere $8 million before interest and taxes, down from $112.9 million.

Revenues dropped 1.5 per cent to $2.1 billion.

The bottom lines at other major Canadian broadcasters have also been shrinking, and some companies have laid off employees to tighten their operating costs.

Canwest is working towards a Friday deadline to renegotiate the terms of bank debt and has put its five E! channels up for sale and is trying to sell other non-core assets, including overseas properties in Australia.

And public broadcaster CBC has been talking with the Heritage Department about concerns the economic downturn will drag the company into a deep deficit during the 2009-2010 financial year.

[SteelTown]

So what do you think of turning CHCH into basically Hamilton's version of CP24?

[bornagainbiking]

The CBC is struggling with a multi-million dollar revenue shortfall and wants Ottawa to provide bridge financing to help balance the books. Should the government say yes?


"The CBC already receives "substantial financing" from federal coffers, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said today as the public broadcaster sought help from Ottawa to stave off cuts to staff and programming.

The public broadcaster says it's in talks with the Heritage Department about the dire effects of a sinking economy, which it says will plunge the corporation into a deep deficit in 2009-2010.

But Flaherty said the CBC already receives a significant amount of public money each year.

"There's substantial financing for CBC in the budget – $1 billion," Flaherty said in a scrum with reporters in Ottawa.

"And traditionally, in recent years, they've received an additional $60 million on top of the $1 billion."

CBC president Hubert Lacroix has said that a $65-million advertising shortfall forced the corporation to draw from reserve funds to balance its books this fiscal year.

But he said the outlook for next year is significantly worse and will require "decisive action in the coming months" that could involve cuts to programs and staff.

A CBC spokesman said Wednesday that those decisions would be made by mid-March.

"We anticipate ... that it's going to be a very difficult year," Jeff Keay said of 2009-2010.

"Like every other media organization in the country, we're facing significant challenges and those challenges do in fact put programming, services and our own people at risk."

Over at CTV, the private broadcaster said today that the economy was forcing it to close two of its television stations. CTV said A channel stations in the southern Ontario communities of Windsor and Wingham would be shuttered when their licences expire at the end of August and that closures in other communities may follow.

Tough times were also in store for the CBC, Lacroix said in an internal memo to staff this week.

"The combination of a severe slump in our commercial revenues, coupled with rising costs of production, is a menacing test that will demand some tough choices on our part," Lacroix writes in the memo, distributed Tuesday.

"Tough choices that will affect, in one way or another, jobs, services and programs in our corporation. We are still working away at finalizing plans. Nothing has yet been determined."

The comments follow several days of conflicting reports regarding the financial state of the CBC.

While some critics suggest the CBC's current fiscal year will end in the red, Keay insists the corporation projects balanced books.

The dire outlook comes after the corporation took the unusual step of buying broadcast rights to U.S. shows including "Jeopardy" and "Wheel of Fortune" last year, a move heavily criticized by the broadcast industry watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

Keay said the investments were made to draw more viewers to the CBC and its Canadian programming. And while he says the game shows have delivered viewers, he admitted that an industry-wide advertising slump has mitigated those gains.

"In the context of the falling advertising revenues, it's too soon to say, but the model is perfectly sound and valid," he said of the CBC's decision to invest in U.S. shows."

[matt602]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

So what do you think of turning CHCH into basically Hamilton's version of CP24?

As long as it really were exactly that, I would love it. CHCH's local coverage has been slimmed down so much now that it's just useless. It's final transformation into "E!" was really the ultimate kick in the nuts.

Any station with more local Hamilton coverage than we have now would be something I'd enjoy.

[SteelTown]

CHCH staff launch bold bid

February 26, 2009
Emma Reilly
The Hamilton Spectator
http://www.thespec.com/News/Business/article/520615

CHCH staff members are proposing a new plan for their troubled station that would allow it to be owned and controlled by community members.

Donna Skelly, the station's former union chair and co-host of Live at 5:30, is spearheading a group of 100 CHCH staff members who are approaching the CRTC with their community-based business model.

If successful, the TV station would use a governing structure similar to a hospital. Rather than being operated by a large media company, CHCH would be governed by a board of directors made up of community leaders.

Canwest, CHCH's current parent company, has put the station on the market in light of Canwest's dire financial situation. If a buyer does not step forward, the station could be shut down within weeks.

"We can't wait for this. We have to intervene," Skelly said of the group's decision to take action.

Skelly says the station is a perfect candidate for a new annual CRTC funding program designated for local news that would allow the group to go ahead with its plan.

The funding, which amounts to $40 million for English programming, is generated by a 50-cent per subscriber fee from cable providers.

The recipients of the CRTC funding will be determined in April, Skelly said.

"We believe that we are the primary candidates for this fund. We are the only station in this market. We need this funding to survive."

Along with the CRTC funding, the station would also need to raise $500,000 from the community to go ahead with the plan.

The new model would also allow for local businesses to purchase advertising at a greatly reduced rate. Currently, CH's ads are priced out of the market for most local organizations, Skelly said.

The station would provide mostly local news, Skelly said, and no American programming.

For more information, contact [email protected].