LAVAL – “There’s so much discussion of flexibility that you’d think we were at a yoga club,” cracked CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais during day one of the license renewal hearing for Canada’s French-language TV broadcasters.
The broadcasters, as is their wont, called for more flexibility and reduced quotas for Canadian programming – and both Quebecor Media and Groupe V Média took shots at the national public broadcaster, even though it’s not part of the hearing.
“We’re worried about the fact that Radio-Canada continues to stray from its mandate to adopt a resolutely commercial approach,” said TVA president Julie Tremblay (pictured), in French, during Quebecor’s presentation. “The mandate of Radio-Canada should focus on complementarity rather than competition with private broadcasters.”
Blais’s first question after the presentation was on the sarcastic side. “We’re here for the renewals of TVA’s licences and not those of Radio-Canada, right?” he asked.
V president Maxime Rémillard also brought up CBC/Radio-Canada’s $675 million in new funding from the federal government and the resources it has to “directly compete with private television in the French-language market.”
The three-day hearing in Laval, Que., also includes Bell Media and Corus Entertainment, which own and operate French-language specialty channels.
After a general discussion about the changing media landscape, during which Quebecor said it is trying to make its content available on as many platforms as possible and said that cord-cutting is a real problem but is not happening as fast as predicted, the back-and-forth got a bit more heated when the discussion turned towards specifics.
Quebecor said TVA should be given more flexibility in Canadian programming quotas, and resisted new quotas on local news, but said that shouldn’t be taken as an indication that it wants to reduce the amount of original programming or local news on its schedule.
“We have to have flexibility,” said Serge Fortin, vice-president of TVA Nouvelles.
“The intervenors don’t trust you.” – Jean-Pierre Blais, CRTC
TVA is currently required to devote 80% of its current-year expenditures on Canadian programming, but exceeds that minimum because of Quebec’s demand for homegrown programming. “We haven’t set 80% as our target, we target the maximum,” said Martin Picard of Quebecor Content. He asked the Commission to “trust us”, prompting a response from Blais that “the intervenors don’t trust you.”
Blais pushed Quebecor on changing how it calculates its quota, suggesting it should be based on the previous year’s revenues rather than current year’s expenses. He insisted that the group come up with a percentage, and gave them a 15-minute break to do so. They came back with 40%, but insisted it be based on the current year’s revenues because of how fast the market is changing.
“We consider that it’s a lot more responsible and less dangerous to base on budget,” rather than revenues, which TVA does not control, said Denis Rozon, vice-president of finance of Groupe TVA.
Other issues brought up at the hearing relating to Quebecor:
Centralization of news production: TVA decided recently to operate local newscasts at regional stations out of control rooms in Montreal and Quebec City, similar to how Global Television has centralized its news production at four control rooms. Fortin said when TVA upgraded its regional stations to high definition, “we had decisions to take,” due to costs.
He assured the CRTC that “everything concerning the gathering of news is done locally in the market.” TVA operates stations in Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Saguenay and Rimouski, each of which has six to eight journalists.
Francophone minority: Though TVA is a private broadcaster with stations only in Quebec, it has obligations to francophones in the rest of Canada in exchange for having mandatory distribution across the country. Blais criticized the group for doing the bare minimum in this regard, a weekly 30-minute program and six yearly specials reflecting the life of francophones outside Quebec.
“It’s a business decision,” said France Lauzière, vice-president of programming for TVA.
“It’s a question of citizenship,” retorted Blais.
“We’re open, if we receive projects, we’ll evaluate them,” Lauzière responded. “But in all transparency, during this licence term, we respected our obligation.”
Local programming: Quebecor is not seeking changes to local programming quotas of 18 hours a week in Quebec City and five hours at other regional stations. There is no minimum for the station in Montreal, which feeds the network.
Redirecting local funds: The new local television policy gives Quebecor the power to redirect Vidéotron’s Canadian programming funding from community television to TVA’s local stations. The group said it hasn’t made a decision yet, and won’t for at least several months, because Vidéotron’s MAtv has relationships, customers, organizational structures and unions that must be taken into consideration.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask as an entrepreneur to have a bit of flexibility.” – Maxime Rémillard, Groupe V Média
V also asked for flexibility, proposing it be made into a designated group with a Canadian programming expenditure level of 50% of programming expenses. This is lower than historical levels, but it cited decreasing ad revenue (dropping 5% a year) and increasing expenses due to inflation for the need to reduce that level.
“I don’t think it’s too much to ask as an entrepreneur to have a bit of flexibility,” Rémillard said. He also noted that V has been struggling to get a larger envelope of funding from the Canada Media Fund and get big-budget shows like nightly talk show En mode Salvail eligible for funding and tax credits.
V is proposing a standardized level of local programming for all its stations: five hours a week, including two and a half hours of local news. This would be lower than its current obligation in Quebec City, but higher for Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay. It says the current plan is for all five hours in each region to be local news.
Neither TVA nor V were prepared to set minimums for locally reflective programming, a new category set by the CRTC. They have been given until Dec. 2 to submit additional information.
V was also asked about Instant Gagnant, a paid-programming late-night game show that charged its viewers to call in for a chance at a prize. It has been accused of scamming viewers with impossible puzzles and was the subject of complaints to the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council. V said it respected its agreement with the CBSC and the 
show is no longer on the air.
Bell Media, meanwhile, had an easier time. It has no French-language over-the-air stations, so it has no local programming requirements. It proposed a Canadian programming expenditure requirement of 32%, based on an industry average, though Bell’s historical average is 34.4%. It also proposed a quota on programs of national interest of 5%, equivalent to the English market but well below historical levels for the francophone market.
Gerry Frappier, (pictured, middle) head of Bell Media’s French services, also asked for flexibility, saying “there are no guarantees in our business anymore.”
He also called for all players to be treated equally.
This is the first hearing for new CRTC commissioner and vice-chair of broadcasting Judith A. LaRocque. She asked only a single question at the very end of the day’s proceedings.
The hearing resumes Wednesday at 8:30 a.m. with presentations from Corus and various intervenors, and concludes Thursday with replies.
Photos by Steve Faguy.
The hearing on English services begins November 28 in Gatineau.
