RadioActive wrote:

Sean Cohan isn't happy with the way the 4,800 layoffs were portrayed in the media

I agree - the media sure made it sound like all the layoffs were coming from the radio/tv divisions, rather than being spread throughout the entire company.

While claiming that "radio is no longer viable" is one of the most irresponsible statements I've ever heard, less than 10% of these cuts came from the media division and I feel that aspect got lost pretty quickly.

Local news is just as important to the people that live in the communities served by CTV as the National News. We have been left with NO local news coverage every weekend which expands to three days over long weekends and there is no media to report on what happens during the weekend. National news gets better than good coverage but the local communities are being left with nothing during the weekend. Local news is just as important and maybe even more important to those that live there. Bell should never have become a major media player. Bell had no experience in broadcasting but saw an opportunity to increase holdings with the acquisition of the Chum group and CTV and look what Bell has done with them.

So according to Sean Cohen diversity makes great business. So what happens if this wonderful storytelling produced by under represented groups of society, will viewers even find it? I can't see CTV interrupting their simsubbed nightly primetime schedule for these programs. Most likely, they will be dumped in less viewed time slots where the suits can claim to the CRTC and woke members of society See? We're doing our part to advance diversity.

Since this is just a recap of a speech Cohan gave at an industry event, there appears to have been no opportunities for those in attendance to ask follow-up questions. It would be great (but highly unlikely, since we hold our corporate overlords in far greater esteem than we do our politicians) if he would sit down to do a one-on-one interview to answer the following questions:
- Will he commit to no further layoffs at CTV National News or CTV News Channel?
- Does he believe that there is a future in OTA broadcast television and will CTV remain as national network?
- What role does radio play in Bellmedia's future media plans?

CTV's issues don't begin and end with simsub.  It is becoming less important, with the exception of fewer and fewer shows.  Event and live broadcasts like The Super Bowl, Academy Awards, Grammy's and sports have become the best bet of decent ratings here and in the US. The audience is not there like it was even five years ago for most prime time scripted shows, including simulcasted programs.

Must see TV for regular OTA network shows is mostly dead.  Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings when the NFL isn't scheduled tend to be empty zones.  Other evenings like Thursday have also been showing big cracks in their ability to draw consistent decent sized audiences. Even when later viewing of shows that have been recorded are added in, the ratings are very poor. 

Look at the ratings two weeks ago when on Sunday, the highest rated program on Canadian TV was the final in Women's International Curling on TSN. This ran in the afternoon, with over 900,000 viewers, and the Canadian ladies winning the tournament.

I know many will quibble about the older demo not being what advertisers want and even make fun of the event since it was curling.  But it was only on a cable sports channel, no simsub, and many would say a marginal sport.  But it still had an average of 900,000 people tuned in.  Higher than anything later in prime time, and in some cases much higher.   American Idol on City with a special 2 hour edition with simsub had 175,000 viewers.     

 What about the big relaunch of the second season after the strike?  So far schedules are still heavy with game shows, and reruns are also creeping back sooner than normal since most scripted shows were only able to produce 10-13 new programs.