CTV cuts 150 jobs

CTV, saying it needs to be more efficient, announced 150 job cuts Thursday most of them in administration and management in Toronto.

The network said about 30 of the jobs were already vacant as a hiring freeze had been in effect since the summer.

CTV said this was the first restructuring of the company in two years a period which saw it buy, launch or integrate more than a dozen stations and services.

"During this unprecedented expansion, CTV found itself with many overlapping services and also found opportunities to change a number of its processes and methods," said CTV president Trina McQueen in a release.

CTV said viewers wouldn't notice much of a change on air. The early morning breakfast program in British Columbia will be cancelled, with viewers instead seeing the full Canada AM network program with local news inserts.

McQueen said three news anchors will lose their jobs in northern Ontario with the cancellation of news programs in Timmins, Sault Ste. Marie and North Bay.

BCE chief executive Jean Monty warned earlier this month that BCE's Bell Globemedia subsidiary (which includes CTV and the Globe and Mail), would need to tighten its belt, as advertising fell in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks.

CTV owns 27 TV stations and has interests in 33 specialty and pay channels. CTV's parent, BCE Inc., closed at $36.93 Thursday, off 57 cents.