Broadcaster cuts local news content

TORONTO — Hamilton’s CHCH channel is cutting back on local news in an attempt to right its troubled finances.

The broadcaster broke into its regular news programming on Friday to announce the changes.

Romen Podzyhun, chief executive of CHCH’s parent company Channel Zero, told viewers the channel would not be airing its 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news broadcasts on Friday.

He did not give a reason for the brief stoppage, but said the station would resume reduced local news coverage on Monday.

Under the new plan, CHCH will air fewer overall hours of news programming, but will be able to continue to deliver local stories to the community, he said.

“This decision will allow us to continue to deliver local stories that matter most to this community,” he said.

“Many of the faces you have grown to love over the years will remain.”

Podzyhun highlighted that CHCH has been operating with “greatly reduced funding in national ad revenue.”

Unifor media sector director Howard Law told The Canadian Press that a lawyer for Channel Zero told him in a briefing that CHCH was planning to reduce its local programming from 80 hours to 25 hours a week.

Law said he was also informed that CHCH newsroom staff would be halved.

Representatives of CHCH and Channel Zero could not immediately provide further details.

As part of the changes, Channel Zero said that Channel 11, the holding company for CHCH, has also filed for bankruptcy.

CHCH first hit the airwaves in 1954, covering the Hamilton, Halton and Niagara region, but the station has faced financial turbulence over the past decade.

In 2009, Channel Zero snapped up CHCH-TV from struggling media giant Canwest Global Communications Corp. and began a foray into local television, despite assertions from its former owner that overthe-air television model was broken.

With experience running only a few small specialty channels, Channel Zero tapped into cheaply-acquired content to pad the hours between its local coverage.

Breaking news aired in the day while second-run Hollywood movies were shown in prime time. Overnight it was mostly content in the public domain.

Eventually that business model shifted to airing more popular TV shows alongside news programming.

Channel Zero hit a snag last year when the CRTC discontinued the Local Program Improvement Fund, a subsidy created to help smaller TV channels survive the economic downturn and declining advertising market.