CHCH-TV in Hamilton has cancelled its Saturday evening newscasts at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. as economics force the Channel Zero-owned television station to trim costs.
The station made the announcement over the weekend, with News Director Greg O’Brien writing in a post to its website that while CHCH has historically been able to exceed its licence obligations, the business has been “co-opted by foreign attention miners who care only about enriching themselves by keeping people addicted to their apps, and not about properly informing us.”
“CHCH now competes with these large foreign platforms for the attention of the citizens in our region while continuing to fulfill the obligations set out in our license,” said O’Brien. “The platforms, however, have no obligations to Canadians whatsoever. Meta has no requirement for making sure what appears on Facebook and Instagram is true and has demonstrated it does not care about right and wrong. Fakes abound on TikTok and YouTube, too. Netflix has no requirements to spend any money on or to offer a minimum number of Canadian stories. Neither does Amazon, Apple or any of the others.”
“And Meta, Google and Amazon now vacuum up more than 75 per cent of the ad dollars in Canada, all while stealing our content to train their artificial intelligence,” he continued. “CRTC data shows that since 2018, ad revenues flowing into private TV broadcasters like CHCH have fallen 25 per cent, or close to $400 million.”
ILNF ripple effect
O’Brien says those massive imbalances were in part addressed by the Online Streaming Act and the Online News Act, under which CHCH receives about $460,000 from Google’s $100M contribution to local news. The veteran journalist also pointed to a CRTC move last year to allow Corus Entertainment’s 15 local TV stations to access the Independent Local News Fund (ILNF).
Financed from 0.3% of each Canadian’s traditional TV subscription bill, CHCH formerly received more than $2 million for the production of local news from the fund. Following Global TV’s inclusion, that amount was cut by 45%.
O’Brien links that decision to Thunder Bay’s TBayTV cutting weekend news earlier this year, alongside Pattison Media’s closure of CHAT-TV Medicine Hat and Stingray shuttering CITL-TV and CKSA-TV in Lloydminster, AB in 2025.
“CHCH has held on but can’t keep taking financial hits and not reacting,” said O’Brien. “While PM [Mark] Carney said in June there will be $600 million worth of taxpayers money set aside for Canadian media, we have no idea when it will be distributed or how much might, in the end, flow to CHCH.”
“And for what it’s worth, we don’t want taxpayer funding,” he asserted. “We believe those foreign platforms scooping hundreds of millions of dollars out of Canada should have an obligation to fund Canadian content such as news, just like CHCH does.”
O’Brien says with Ottawa’s move to walk away from tariff negotiations with the U.S., “the federal government has a chance to reset itself on the cultural files, to let the CRTC do the work it has been doing and make it clear to foreign streamers that as long as they are pulling hundreds of millions of dollars out of Canada, they have an obligation to fund Canadian content, including news.”
Podcasts to replace Saturday evening news
In place of CHCH-TV’s Saturday newscasts, O’Brien said the station will air podcasts between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. and from 11-11:30 p.m. Local news, sports and weather will continue to be found in the ticker surrounding the video.
“We will continue to have a team working hard to gather news on Saturdays and publish to chch.com,” he continued. “We are not letting anyone go. The Evening News will continue to be broadcast on TV Sunday-Friday, as will Morning Live, and Trending Now will return in October as planned.”
“We recognize the impact this change has on those who rely on our Saturday broadcasts and we are so grateful to our entire team at CHCH News as well as our viewers, readers and listeners for sticking with us.”
