CTV ‘W5’ canceled amid larger staff cuts at Bell Media

Canadian broadcaster CTV will cancel its long-running investigative newsmagazine “W5” as part of larger staff cuts by owner BCE and parent Bell Media, the network announced Feb. 8, 2024.

“W5” launched Sept. 11, 1966, and is widely credited with helping to sculpt and inspire the newsmagazine format.

CTV says that, while the “W5” program will no longer air, the name will continue on as a franchise segment contained within other CTV News programs.

Bell Media owner BCE has said it is cutting about 9% of its workforce, or about 4,800 jobs. About 10% of those eliminations will be within Bell Media. It is not immediately clear how many jobs, if any, would be from directly within the “W5” unit.

Bell also said it expects other news programming, including local news, to be affected by the cuts. 

The changes and job losses come at a time when many other media companies are cutting jobs to save money.