The CRTC has approved a license renewal for CTV affiliate CKPR-DT/2 (Thunder Bay) that will allow it to potentially spend less on Canadian programming and local news, though the station says it plans to keep up its current level of news offerings.
CKPR is owned by Dougall Media and operates with twin-stick Global affiliate CHFD/4 as Thunder Bay Television, the only commercial TV operation in northwestern Ontario. The CRTC notes in its decision approving license renewal that CKPR has “experienced steady revenue declines, incurring losses.”
The station had previously been required to spend 47% of its gross revenue on Canadian programming but that figure will drop to 30%, which is in line with requirements for major broadcast groups and for CHFD.
TBT has the only full TV newsroom between Sudbury and Winnipeg, bridging a large gap between eastern and western Canada. CKPR indicated plans to continue offering 14 hours of local programming per week across CKPR and CHFD. However, the CRTC approved a reduction in CKPR’s minimum expenditures on local news from 48% to 20% of gross revenue due to declining revenues and high operating costs.
The station’s filing says it has 14 on-air employees and it has “experienced a significant increase in the number of news staff being recruited from our operation by the large integrated operations.” Turnover has been as short as four months.
The station’s financial issues received national attention in 2016, when its general manager told a regulatory panel that, at that time, TBT was surviving on life insurance proceeds and being subsidized by sister radio stations.
TBT competes locally with multiple out-of-market feeds of each Canadian and U.S. network. Shaw’s Thunder Bay lineup includes five other CTV affiliates, two other Global affiliates, and major U.S. network affiliates from Minneapolis and Spokane, though Canadian rules require TBT to be simultaneously substituted on top of duplicate programs from the U.S. On satellite providers, CKPR and CHFD are carried on three-digit channels buried among dozens of out-of-market stations.