It’s a stunning media story in what seems to be a world where any news channel is a good news channel. Rogers Communications Inc. is killing off City News Channel after 20 months of operation. Scott Moore, president of broadcast at the Rogers Media division, announced the decision to immediately shut down the channel on Thursday. City News Channel was thought by media watchers to be the signal that would challenge CTV’s CP24. For whatever reason, Rogers has no stomach for that competition. In fact, Rogers handling of City News Channel has been odd from the start. It seemed an easy thing for Rogers to bundle the City signal into its package of news sources for which some customers pay good money, and thus deliver a more consistent audience to the service. But they did not. Instead, City News channel seemed to travel all over the dial almost as if Rogers wasn’t in control of where it landed. Short term, it is easy to see how Rogers will cut some costs. Longer term, BTV and Citypulse at Six are going to have to watch their local flanks carefully.
