MONTREAL – Some would-be Montreal television producers have had it with Vidéotron's community television service in the city, so much so that they have filed a complaint with the CRTC and are demanding that the cable provider give them $23 million a year so they can create their own community channel.
The group, composed mainly of people whose resumes include Concordia University Television or CKUT Radio McGill, alleges that MAtv, the French-language community channel run by Vidéotron, airs no community access programming whatsoever, despite CRTC policy (set in 2010) requiring that 45% of programming aired on community channels come from the community. It argues that all of the programming on the channel is run by professionals (in some cases to sell their own products), is actually produced by Vidéotron or is not local to Montreal.
In exchange, the group proposes Independent Community Television, a non-profit organization with a 19-member board of directors representing various communities. ICTV wants to take the money Vidéotron currently sets aside for its channel to offer programming that is at least 80% local to Montreal and 70% created by people in the community who are not employees of the organization.
The group formed last year in response to Videotron's application to create a separate English-language community channel in Montreal called MYtv. That application had mixed reaction, with many praising it but others complaining that the channel would have few opportunities for access programming. The Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS) opposed it, saying that the proposal suggested that "Videotron intends to run MYtv as a de facto conventional television channel" instead of one focused on giving access to the community. Videotron is waiting on a CRTC decision on its application to create MYtv.
The ICTV group has proposed an annual budget of $23 million, entirely provided by Vidéotron. It arrived at the figure through a very general estimate of how much the cable company spends on community programming.
Vidéotron does not reveal MAtv's full budget publicly, but it did say last fall that English community channel MYtv would have a budget of $6 million a year, the same as the French channel in the Montreal area.
ICTV said its budget plan is "scaleable."
In response to ICTV's complaint, the CRTC has asked the Quebecor-owned cable company to explain in detail how its community channel meets the objectives of community television policy, how each show meets the definition of access programming, how the service promotes its training opportunities, and a list of proposals that were rejected since September 1, 2011, along with the reasons for those rejections. Vidéotron has until March 10 to provide this information, which will go on the public record. The public has until April 10 to comment on the complaint.
