A sign of (TV news) things to come?

Word from Canada today is that the new owner of French-language network TQS is eliminating its news department and 270 jobs. Remstar is trying to revive the insolvnt network. It say it will pay creditors only 20 cents on the dollar. It also needs Canadian federal approval to cut the news. (And needless to say, the union is not happy.)

There's always danger in extrapolating any situation, but it makes one wonder if we are beginning to see the tattered edges of an economic slap down for broadcast news akin to what newspapers are going through. TQS, for instance, cited too much news being produced in Quebec -- but the digital age is exactly that, the economy of abundance.

With the talk of a possible CBS-CNN partnership -- later denied by CBS -- and NBC's brass saying the future of news is on cable, not on the network, It makes one wonder ...