Bell Media Cuts 1,300 Jobs Amid “Growing” Losses

Etan Vlessing
·1 min read

The cost-cutting at top-rated Canadian broadcaster Bell Media has quickened with the loss of around 1,300 jobs.

As it continues reducing operating costs while Canada’s ad-supported cable TV market shrinks amid a worsening TV ad market, cord-cutting and the dominance of U.S. streaming services, Bell Media also closed six radio stations.

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“Across Bell media’s news operations, despite being Canada’s new leader, we incur $40 million and growing in annual operating losses, and the profitability of our radio business has been cut in half since the onset of COVID,” Mirko Bibic, CEO of parent Bell Canada, said in an internal note to employees obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

“The job reductions are consistent with but smaller than similar reductions announced by other leading technology and media companies across North America in recent months,” Bibic added of the latest job cuts that come on top of 210 employees that left the company in 2021.

Bell Media president Wade Oosterman in his own internal memo said the media player was facing “the ongoing migration of advertising revenue to foreign digital platforms” like Google and Facebook, and Canadians continued to migrate from traditional linear TV channels to digital streamers.

As the digital age has allowed U.S. studio dramas and comedies that traditionally came to Canadians via local pay TV providers to now be streamed into homes via the Internet, Bell Media bet its future profits would come more from channel subscriptions than advertising, including for its local Crave streaming platform.

But the continuing penetration of U.S.-based platforms Disney+, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video has put additional pressure on local media players to cut costs to ensure profitability.

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