Rogers Media Inc. is cutting all newscasts on OMNI Television. According to a published report, Rogers Media is cutting about 100 jobs from its television operations, mainly at its Omni multicultural stations.
There are rumours that there may be some limited Chinese and Punjabi news production and Vancouver might just become a bureau. This action could mean the end of the daily Punjabi news which the Sikh community in British Columbia regularly watches.
The multilingual stations currently air newscasts in Cantonese, Mandarin, Punjabi, and Italian. They have faced increasing pressure from newscasts originating abroad.
According to documents filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the Rogers Media unit of Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc. lost $85.8-million before interest and taxes in its conventional TV operations last year.
During a presentation to the CRTC one year ago, Keith Pelley, the president of Rogers Media, said OMNI “is in a financial crisis” as ad revenues had plummeted more than 50 per cent in only two years, dropping from more than $80-million in 2011 to less than $35-million in the 2013-14 broadcast year.
Most of OMNI’s revenues had come from ad sales on some popular U.S. programs such as Two and a Half Men and The Simpsons, which have become more widely available in syndication and on streaming services.
Pelley said that those ad revenues had helped support the ethnic and third-language news and information programming financially.
