Bell Canada firing about 4800 people and selling 45 Radio Stations

Bell Canada Inc. is firing 4800 staff members or 9% of its workforce including journalists and other workers. In addition, 45 of its 103 regional radio stations are being sold. British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada are the regions affected by the impacted stations. In an open letter dated February 8 and signed by CEO Mirko Bibic, the corporation said that 4,800 positions “at all levels of the company” will be eliminated.

The remaining employees will be informed of their layoffs by the spring, but some have already been informed or were scheduled to be informed on Thursday. According to Bibic, the business will make the most of openings and organic attrition to reduce layoffs as much as feasible.

This is the company’s second significant layoff since last spring, when nine radio stations were either sold or closed and 6% of Bell Media employment were cut. The Bell official stated that the firm requires immediate assistance, and that assistance may come from a fund it has suggested, which would allow streamers to support regional or national news.

Over the last year, Bell has contested various regulatory rulings that it claims make life more difficult for its financially troubled broadcast sector.

This includes an appeal submitted in October to the Federal Court of Appeal with the goal of overturning a decision made by the CRTC to extend its broadcast licenses for a further three years. It said that the decision, which was taken in the absence of a public hearing, may lead to the regulator ignoring its requests from June of last year to exclude its television stations from the requirements for local news and Canadian content.

In 2023, Bell Media’s advertising sales fell by $140 million from the previous year, and the news segment of the corporation is experiencing operational losses of over $40 million annually, according to Bibic’s letter.

This new Bell restructuring and firing of 4800 employees shows the Canadian reality and trouble Canadian economy is facing. In one hand people listen to radio less often and therefore there is less interest in advertising. On the other hand it could mean that companies who invested into radio advertising have less budget and therefore spend less.

However it might be, Canada has now 4800 more unemployed people!