Bell Media has asked the federal broadcast regulator to drop the spending requirements and dedicated airtime imposed on the company’s local television news programming.
BCE’s media arm says it wants the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to amend “certain conditions of licence” regarding its local English- and French-language TV stations, CTV and Noovo.
Bell Media calls it “regulatory relief” to counter online competition and help offset losses racked up in recent years.
“Unfortunately, Bell Media has been losing tens of millions alone in the production and delivery of local news,” it said in a summary of the application posted Friday and filed on June 14 — the same day BCE announced it’s cutting 1,300
