Local TV news coverage more important than station finances, says CRTC chair
OTTAWA — TV stations have a responsibility to produce local news, even if it hurts their bottom line, the head of the country’s broadcast regulator told a Commons committee Thursday.
Financial profits aren’t everything, said Jean Pierre Blais, chairman of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. He lamented the “disturbing number of television stations” that have cut staff, centralized operations and reduced the length of their newscasts.
“We do not believe that local television news can be allowed to fall by the wayside simply because it doesn’t look good on the balance sheet,” Blais told the heritage committee, which is studying the future of local media.
“The marketplace of products, revenues and profits is not the only marketplace that counts,” Blais said. “Far from it. There is also the marketplace of ideas and information. That marketplace trades in a kind of wealth that supports every aspect of our Canadian society.”