Local programming eroded with A-Channel cuts: Ottawa, March 03, 2009.The erosion of local programming at CTV's A-Channel flies in the face of promises made when the company purchased the network, says Canada's largest media union.

“CTV's license approval by the CRTC was partly based on the selling pitch that bigger is better -- that the larger corporations would be able to nurture and protect the smaller stations,” says Peter Murdoch, Vice-President, Media for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada.

“Yet, at the first sign of bad times, it is the small communities and channels that pay the price. What happened to those promises?” he asks.

At hearings last year, CEP encouraged the CRTC to help fund local programming through fee-for-carriage, but that request fell on deaf ears.

“It is clear the CRTC made a devastating mistake in not helping the conventional broadcasters with money from the cash-rich cable companies. And now workers, young and old, with financial commitments are out on the street.”

Murdoch said the union will be demanding that the CRTC release the financials from the broadcasters on the health of individual stations.

“Right now, we only have the word of the self-interested executives as to where the problem really lies. We are entitled to know the facts.”