Since we learnt bodies were falling at Citytv, I've had a few emails from people on the inside. One gentleman tells me there's a lot of chatter amongst the survivors about Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-347.
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-347 was the approval by the CRTC to grant Rogers a "broadcasting licence to provide CITY News (Toronto), a regional English-language Category 2 specialty service that would offer 24-hour-a-day news and information programming sourced from its local television and radio news properties. The programming would consist of a mix of local news, traffic, weather, business, sports and entertainment information devoted exclusively to residents in the Greater Toronto and commuting areas."
This new Rogers 24-hour-a-day news channel is coming soon, possibly to channel 1 on your Rogers digital cable box. The CityNews (I preferred CityPulse) survivors are speculating that all Citytv news programming will eventually move to this new GTA news channel. The axing of the noon, 5pm and weekend news is just the beginning.
I'm going to share part of an email I got from someone with intimate knowledge of what went down at Citytv this week.
Anne was first to go shortly after the news on Monday evening. The rumour of her being let go spread quickly through the staff and Tuesday morning the rest of the pink slips were being handed out. Staff was weeping in the open, some of them wondering if they would be next.
Not fun...
