MONTREAL – Videotron announced late Tuesday afternoon that it won’t be making its regular monthly contributions to the Canadian Television Fund either.
In a letter to the CTF, Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Videotron parent Quebecor Inc. said it won’t pay and has asked the Bev Oda, Minister of Canadian Heritage, to launch a thorough review of the fund’s management and membership structures.
In a press release, Péladeau said he feels "deep dissatisfaction with the Fund’s governance, performance and direction" and complained that "Fund managers pay little heed to the main private-sector contributors to the Fund and give little consideration to their point of view in decision-making."
In an interview with Cartt.ca, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw expressed similar sentiments as his company has also suspended payments to CTF.
Péladeau added in his letter that "there is no justifiable reason for the Fund’s failure to date to recognize the role of video on demand in the financing and dissemination of Canadian content. In Quebec alone, Illico on Demand logged nearly 20 million orders in 2006, the vast majority of which were for Canadian productions."
The CTF does not fund content which goes straight to VOD.
Péladeau also said he cannot accept that his company’s contributions should be used to finance the public broadcaster CBC/SRC, and that the Canadian Television Fund should reserve 37% of all production funding for CBC/SRC (the CBC, in a letter to the editor to Cartt.ca, clarifies its position on the matter here).
"In 2006, CBC/SRC received a total of $1.006 billion in parliamentary allocations and special government grants. It also collected about $105 million in carriage fees for its specialty channels Newsworld and RDI, and for ARTV, of which it is one of the most important shareholders, for a total of $1.111 billion. We fail to understand why the public broadcaster CBC/SRC should, in addition, receive a significant contribution and guarantee from the Canadian Television Fund, which is funded primarily by the private sector," says the Quebecor letter to the CTF.
Quebecor wants Minister Oda to undertake a thorough review of the Fund’s management and membership structures, in consultation with the private-sector contributors.
"We fully intend to continue being a leading contributor to the financing of Canadian production but we have decided to withhold our monthly contributions to the Canadian Television Fund until significant changes are made to its management and direction."
