Bell Media has made a round of layoffs in Vancouver that includes CTV News At Six co-anchor Scott Roberts.
Roberts had been co-anchoring CTV Vancouver’s flagship newscast since the fall of 2018, alongside Mi-Jung Lee. The newscast has captured the West Region RTDNA Canada Award for Best TV Newscast two years in a row (2020/21) and also picked up multiple Edward R. Murrow Awards last year for Best Newscast and Best Breaking News in the International category for its pandemic coverage.
Roberts had been with the CTV Vancouver newsroom since 2012 and been recognized with numerous awards for his reporting.
“Tough day. Had a good 15 year run at CTV, but unfortunately layoffs are part of a difficult business climate for journalism,” wrote Roberts in a post to Twitter on Tuesday evening. “Wishing all my colleagues the very best. Continue doing important work.”
CTV Morning Live traffic and segment host Luisa Alvarez, who had been with the station since 2019, was also caught up in this week’s layoffs. Alvarez additionally contributed traffic updates to TSN 1040 (CKST-AM) and BNN Bloomberg 1410 (CFTE-AM).
Today my life changed. 😔 pic.twitter.com/aIybiTHY9F
— Luisa Alvarez (@luisaalvarez95) March 10, 2022
Olivia Jones, the midday host at MOVE 103.5 FM (CHQM-FM) Vancouver, has also parted ways with the company. Jones’ midday show had been heard across the MOVE brand in B.C. for the last year, including MOVE 97.1 (CJMG-FM) Penticton, MOVE 101.5 (CILK-FM) Kelowna, and MOVE 98.5 (CHRX-FM) Fort St. John. Jones had been with CHQM for the last 11 years and prior to that was a host on The Beat 94.5 (CFBT-FM) for six years (now Virgin Radio). She’d also been a fill-in weather host on CTV Morning Live since last April.
After 17 years, today was my last day with Bell Media.
From The Beat Street Squad to hosting the Midday Show on Move 103.5 in 4 markets and fill-in weather caster on CTV Morning Live, it’s been an incredible run.
Excited for what’s next…
— Olivia Jones (@OliviaJonesFM) March 10, 2022
Bell Media made a sweeping round of layoffs spanning markets Canada-wide one year ago, following two rounds of executive shuffling as President Wade Oosterman took the reins of the division.
Bell Media operating revenue increased 7.3% in Q4 to $849 million, and by 10.4% to $3,036 million for 2021, driven primarily by increased TV advertiser spending and higher subscriber revenue. Ad revenue increased 11.8% in Q4 and was up 16.3% in 2021, driven by stronger conventional and specialty TV performance, due to the return to a more regular sports schedule and a fuller fall TV line-up compared to Q4 2020.
Digital revenues, including growth of Bell’s Crave streaming service, represented 20% of total Bell Media revenue in 2021, up from 16% in 2020.
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