Today, at a town hall meeting in Toronto, CBC top brass announced that they will be cutting 657 jobs over two years, halting planned regional expansions and reducing services in a number of other areas in an effort to cut $130 million from their budget.
The cuts are mainly the result of a budget shortfall incurred when CBC lost the rights to broadcast NHL hockey. However, softening advertising revenues as a result of low viewership by people in the 25-54 year-old demographic and actions around the Deficit Reduction Action Plan (DRAP) and the elimination of the Local Programming Improvement Fund (LPIF), also put significant pressure on CBC to tighten their budget.
Despite a reported edict from CBC not to tweet about the town hall, details of the cuts and reactions leaked on to social media quickly this afternoon.
The reactions varied from sad to angry, from CBC staff and non-CBC staff alike.
View the full storify here.
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