Who would have ever thought we’d see the day that future of BC’s iconic TV news leader would look so bleak!
This past week, not even the money-making Global BC could escape the carnage carving up the Corus media empire.
Ten Global BC staff, including several long-time employees, were approached by management and asked to accept voluntary “layoffs” and leave.
From what I understand (haven’t seen their union contract in years), layoffs would be a cheaper way of getting rid of senior staff than offering buyouts. It would also avoid the difficulties the company could face if the job cuts took place on a seniority basis, forcing the company to lay off from the bottom of the seniority list … ie. more, lower-paid, younger staff to achieve the same financial savings as getting rid of … sorry, “laying off” … fewer long-time workers.
Corus is in trouble!
The company’s stock closed Friday at 14 cents a share. Hard to believe that just a year ago, the stock was selling for $1.33 a share, back in 2021, for $6.30, and, in March, 2013 more than $25 a share!! But by this Aug 6, it had sunk to its lowest value of the year … only 10 cents a share.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen!
“Corus was already struggling with declining revenues when it was informed last month that Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. would not renew the company’s Canadian rights to five popular specialty channels – including HGTV and Food Network – when its current deal expires at the end of this year,” the Globe and Mail explained in July.
Since then, Corus operations and staff have been taking hits … but money-making Global BC had been relatively unscathed. Until now.
“The company revealed last month one in four of its workers would be cut. That news came after a third-quarter analyst and investor call where the company said its priorities were cutting costs and managing its liabilities,” the Daily Hive reported last week. (Read the full story here: https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/global-news-bc-corus-layoffs.)
Hamilton radio station CHML was closed down completely, several staff cuts were initiated at other Corus stations across the country … and this time, not even Global BC could escape.
I’m not surprised.
Readers of this blog have witnessed me sounding the alarm bells for years now about what I saw (as a 26-year BCTV veteran) as the declining quality of much of Global BC’s “news” presentation, including far too much boring community and ethnic fluff.
But, I thought, it’s a new world … and maybe management knew what they’re doing to achieve a larger, broader audience.
Apparently, not!
I now have information that in April, Global BC’s Newshour drew only 1.8 ratings points in the key 25 to 54 age group; and only 1.9 ratings points in May. Those are terrible ratings for the once-mighty Newshour … that used to consistently draw well over 5.0 and 6.0 full ratings points each evening.
The morning show in May, for the same demographic, drew only 0.6 of a ratings point. Ugh!
Looks like many viewers agreed with me.
A terrible drop in the 6 p.m. audience … especially in view of how much BC’s population and potential viewership has grown in the past two decades: yet, Global Newshour’s share of those watching has apparently gone down, down, down. (If Global has “alternative facts” on ratings and would like to make them public, I’d be happy to see/present them.)
And, sadly, the future looks even bleaker.
With more and more younger people (especially Millennials and Generation Z) going to the Internet for their News, the on-line media audience monitoring service Comscore Digital ranks BC’s digital news/information choices …
In June, CBC News BC came out #1; followed by CTV News as #2; Vancouver Sun #3; CityNews Vancouver #4; and, Global News BC in #5 spot.
Global BC in #5 spot!!
Even I found that surprising.
(For news junkies here’s a few more: Times Colonist #6; The Province #7; CHEK News #8; Narcity Vancouver #9; and, VicNews #10).
And remember, what we’re talking about here are millions of people who now look for their news on-line … in other words, a huge and growing audience!
On its website Comscore boasts about the services it provides for media and marketing firms:
“Comscore is a trusted partner for planning, transacting and evaluating media across platforms. With transformative data science and vast audience insights across digital, linear TV, over-the-top (OTT) and theatrical viewership, we are a powerful third-party source for reliable measurement of cross-platform audiences.”
Global’s fall from grace, however, should not be celebrated, not even by those who decried its slide from a hard-hitting agenda-setting BC news force into a more fluff-filled community-television-style outlet.
A democratic society needs a fully-staffed, research-supported, quality reporting no-nonsense healthy media infrastructure to keep check and inform on the workings and failings of governments and politicians at all levels, public and private businesses/corporations , land developers, environmental polluters, scammers, criminals and the Courts that are supposed to keep them in line.
The public interest is not served when giant media corporation like Corus (Global), with annual revenues of more than $1.5 Billion; Bell Media (CTV), with annual revenues of $3.2 Billion; and Rogers Media (Citytv), reporting $2.3 Billion in revenues still kill off or cut their news operations down to bare bones.
Canada’s airwaves and broadcast rights belong to the people … or at least, they should!
The CRTC, the Competition Bureau and the federal government’s forensic auditors should take a hard look at Canada’s media giants’ financial books, licensing commitments they’ve made and any new corporate agreements they’ve entered into amongst themselves that will enrich major shareholders, while more of their staff lose their jobs and more and more Canadians lose their news.
Harv Oberfeld
(New blog next Monday. Follow @harveyoberfeld on “X” for FREE First Alerts to all new postings on the blog.)