Canada's TVO Network Chops Jobs and Big Ticket Shows

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA — Government cost-cutting will eliminate up to 40 jobs at TVO, the Ontario-based public broadcaster.

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North America’s largest educational broadcaster, which supplies content to online platforms like Yahoo! and YouTube, said it will cancel Saturday Night at the Movies, a double-header of Hollywood movies, at the end of the current season.

TVO will also cut the Allan Gregg in Conversation talker and the Big Ideas lecture series.

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The cuts to traditional TV production come as TVO looks to reduce its reliance on taxpayer coin and divert dollars to digital technology in kids media.

“These are tough decisions but times change and we have to adapt and innovate," TVO CEO Lisa de Wilde said in a statement Tuesday.

Saturday Night at the Movies was hosted for 25 years to 1999 by the late Elwy Yost, the father of Hollywood screenwriter Graham Yost (Justified, Speed).

TVO’s current operating budget is $64 million, of which $42 million comes from the Ontario provincial government.

Another $22 million is generated by TVO itself, including from corporate sponsorships and online/digital revenues.