Canada’s public broadcaster CBC/Radio-Canada confirmed on Monday that it is cutting 600 jobs, a 10% reduction in its workforce, due to “declining TV advertising revenue and fierce competition from IT giants”.

The first layoffs are expected in the coming weeks, but “the majority of them” will proceed “over the next 12 months,” the public body added in a press release.

The 250 layoffs will be at CBC, the group’s English-language network, and an equal number at Radio-Canada, its French-language division; the rest will hit the technical department and support services.

The group also said that “almost 200 positions currently vacant” will be eliminated.

“CBC/Radio-Canada is not immune to the turmoil facing the Canadian media industry,” said CBC/Radio-Canada president and chief executive Catherine Tate, saying that in the face of pressures the group lacks “the necessary flexibility to continue without reductions”.

“These pressures stem from the same structural factors affecting Canadian media as a whole, notably rising production costs, declining television advertising revenue and fierce competition from IT giants,” he added.

CBC/Radio-Canada also plans to reduce its spending on program production and purchase to save a total of $125 million in the 2024/2025 fiscal year.

This is a “black day” for the public broadcaster and for access to information, the Radio-Canada workers’ union said in a statement.

Many Canadian media outlets are currently in dire financial straits; the public group is not the first to announce layoffs.

In early November, more than 500 TVA group workers were laid off, in other words its staff was reduced by about a third.

The CBC/Radio-Canada group had not seen such cuts since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government took office in 2015.