BCE is reducing its workforce by 9%, or around 4,800 jobs. Bell also announces the sale of 45 of its 103 radio stations across the country, including 7 in Quebec. The company is therefore divesting its Énergie and Rouge stations in Bas-Saint-Laurent and Centre-du-Québec, as well as its Boom FM frequencies in Montérégie.
The seven stations will be transferred to Arsenal Media, which already has 18 antennas in Quebec, mainly in regional markets. The transaction, financial details of which have not yet been disclosed, must still receive CRTC approval.
“It’s good news for regional news that a group like ours is acquiring these stations. We have a very decentralized approach. We believe that radio must remain a local media. It’s not about firing journalists and trying to make economies of scale; journalists, on the contrary, there is a lack of them,” specified in an interview with Duty Sylvain Chamberland, CEO of Arsenal Media.
Mr. Chamberland wanted to be reassuring, especially since the seven stations that Arsenal Media is acquiring are among the last sources of regional information in their respective markets. Local newspapers have indeed suffered hard from the media crisis of recent years.
Regional radio is also experiencing a decline in listeners, but Mr Chamberland is optimistic about its future. “Everyone is talking today about Bell, which sells 45 stations. But what is not said enough is that these 45 stations have all been bought by smaller groups, like ours. Radio is returning to something more local. We realize that it costs less than large national structures that are complicated to manage,” he maintains.
Relocations in sight?
According to our information, the Bell Media division will absorb less than 10% of the cuts within the conglomerate, whose main activities remain cable distribution and telephony.
Among the 4,800 positions eliminated across the company, it was not said how many of them are based in Quebec. Unifor, the main union at Bell, however, reported that 800 of its members would lose their jobs in Quebec and Ontario. Of these, 100 work in the media field, 300 are installation technicians and 400 are office workers.
“Among the 400 office employees, there will surely be some relocations abroad. This is what Bell has accustomed us to in recent years. There is a great feeling of anger among us today,” said Daniel Cloutier, the Quebec director of Unifor.
These new cuts at BCE are in addition to those announced in June. The telecommunications and media giant then cut 1,300 jobs and sold six radio stations. These cuts then almost exclusively affected English Canada.
A “very difficult” situation
In an open letter released on Thursday, BCE CEO Mirko Bibic justified these decisions by an economic context that remained “very difficult”.
He also decried a set of regulatory and policy decisions that increase the burden on the company. “These undermine investments in our networks, fail to support our media activities in times of crisis and delay ensuring fair competition with global technology giants,” the missive reads.
Bell is, among other things, weighed down by the decline in the traditional telephony market: the company is also forecasting a loss of revenue of $250 million in this sector this year. Its media activities are also being hit hard by the exodus of advertisers to large platforms, like the entire industry. In 2023, Bell Media saw its advertising revenue drop by $140 million compared to the previous year. What’s more, the operation of news services across the country has caused an annual loss of 40 million. And this, even if CTV, owned by Bell, remains the most listened to network in English Canada.
The cuts do not spare the information sector. “We must make our cutting-edge newsrooms even more efficient, while continuing the strategic transformation of the news team,” said Sean Cohen, president of the Bell Media subsidiary, in an internal memo sent to employees Thursday.
It is unclear whether the news department of Noovo, Bell’s French-language general channel, will be affected by the recent cuts. The Unifor union, however, received confirmation that 12 positions would be eliminated in the CTV offices in Montreal.
The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge, said she was disappointed with Thursday’s announcement. She criticized Bell for avoiding its information commitments. “At a time when the entire industry should be pulling together, we see that Bell is deciding to protect dividends to shareholders,” she lamented at a press briefing.
A law with insufficient benefits
In his internal note, including The duty obtained a copy, the president of Bell Media cites the steady decline in traditional television audiences. Sean Cohen also mentions that the benefits of the new Online News Act are proving insufficient.
Remember that this law, adopted last summer by the Trudeau government, was intended to force Web giants to negotiate agreements with Canadian media in order to better share revenues from journalistic content. But Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, preferred to remove the news from its platforms in Canada in protest, dealing a big blow to Canadian media. However, an agreement was reached with Google: this provides for the sharing of an annual prize pool of $100 million between the country’s various media outlets, a sum below what the media initially hoped for.
In recent months, most major players in the media industry have made major cutbacks. TVA is preparing to eliminate 547 positions, which represents nearly a third of its workforce. CBC / Radio-Canada plans to eliminate 800 positions in the next year, or 10% of jobs within the public broadcaster.