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The CRTC started open public hearings today in Gatineau, Quebec as part of the broadcast regulator’s review of local and community television but as it got underway one thing was clear, local TV is struggling.

A recent study warned nearly half of the country’s local TV stations could be off the air in the next few years without a boost in revenues to pay for local programming. Six weeks ago there were massive job cuts at this station.

“We have consumers telling us they value local news and yet it can’t sustain itself on the current model that we have.” Said Channel Zero president Cal Millar.

There’s particular concern for independent stations in small and medium-sized markets, like CHCH that aren’t affiliated with the big broadcasting conglomerates

TV revenues are declining and can be blamed partly on the viewing habits of so-called millennials who have turned away from traditional TV and instead watch programming online. Channel Zero says it’d been losing around $130 000 a week, part of those losses are being blamed on the loss of the CRTC’s local programming improvement fundor LPIF.

In its presentation to the CRTC, Channel Zero is proposing a new funding model which redistributes money already in the system.