CTV predicts $100M loss in television operations

CTV will be telling federal regulators that it expects to lose as much as $100 million on its over-the-air TV operations this year, according to documents the broadcaster released on Friday.

The forecast follows a loss of $13.3 million in 2008.

In a memo to employees, the company said its A-Channel television stations are in a "grave" financial situation because of lower advertising revenues and it will have to cut operating costs at the local networks in Ontario, B.C. and Nova Scotia.

A CTV representative wasn't immediately available to explain how the cost reductions could play out, but a document that parent company CTVglobemedia intends to file with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission next week said closing conventional television operations is an option.

Earlier this week, CTV said it will not seek to renew the licences for two A-Channel stations — CKNX-TV in Wingham and CHWI-TV in Wheatley and Windsor in southwestern Ontario — when they expire at the end of August.

Lydia Miljan, a political science professor specializing in the media at the University of Windsor, said the cuts will hit small communities across Canada particularly hard.

"The nature of conglomerations and concentration of media ownership is that you only have so many choices. You usually have one television, one radio, one newspaper in a town, so if any one of those components leaves, that really strikes a blow for both the media organizations, but also the nature of democracy and diversity of news and different viewpoints," Miljan told CBC News.

The recession, with its shortage of advertising dollars, is having an impact on other Canadian media giants.

Canwest Global Communications Corp., which owes almost $4 billion, faces a deadline of March 11 to reach a deal with creditors to avoid having to file for bankruptcy protection.

Senior lenders agreed on Friday to extend the deadline, while reducing the company's $300-million credit line by nearly two-thirds.

Canwest Global, which owns the National Post newspaper and Global Television, is Canada's largest media company. It borrowed billions of dollars to buy newspapers and cable channels and is now struggling to repay those loans.

with files from Canadian Press