Canada's largest media and telecommunications company announced Thursday it would end several television news programs and make other programming cuts after its parent company announced 4,800 layoffs and the sale of 45 of its 103 regional radio stations.

An internal memo to Bell Media employees says news broadcasters such as CTV and BNN Bloomberg will be immediately affected.

The stations sold are located in British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces.

The memo, signed by Dave Daigle, vice president of local television, radio and studios at Bell Media, and Richard Gray, vice president of news at Bell Media, states that weekday midday news broadcasts on all CTV networks except Toronto will disappear. The 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. weekend news broadcasts will also be eliminated on all CTV and CTV2 networks, except Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa.

Bell Media's parent company, BCE Inc., previously announced it was reducing its workforce by 9%.

In an open letter signed by Mirko Bibic, CEO of the company, the elimination of 4,800 jobs “at all levels of the company” was announced. Less than 10% of the jobs eliminated correspond specifically to Bell Media.

Some employees have already been informed or were going to be informed of their dismissal on Thursday, while the rest will be informed in the coming weeks. Bibic said the company will use vacant positions and gradual, natural workforce reductions to minimize layoffs as much as possible.

The Unifor union said 800 members it represents were laid off because of the cuts at Bell, including about 100 in the media sector and the rest in the telecommunications sector.

CTV's investigative series “W5” will also cease to exist in its current format. The internal memo sent to Bell Media employees says the award-winning show will “evolve” from a standalone documentary series to become “a multi-part, multi-platform investigative reporting unit.”

His reports will appear on CTV National News, the CTV News website and other CTV platforms.