OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday approved with strict conditions the acquisition of TQS Network by Remstar Diffusion inc. The commission renewed the broadcast licences of TQS’ television stations in Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Saguenay until 2015, but will re-examine the programming commitments after three years.
“Holding a licence to operate a conventional television station comes with certain responsibilities and obligations, one of which is to provide viewers with a significant amount of local news,” said CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein in a statement. “Remstar’s proposal fell well short of this requirement. In this case, we have taken into account TQS’s precarious financial situation and will allow, as a short-term measure and on an exceptional basis, a reduced amount of local news. We fully expect that TQS’s situation will permit it to improve upon this amount within three years.”
The commission temporarily accepted Remstar’s proposal to replace traditional newscasts with a new concept that features local programming in which current events are discussed and analyzed. At least two hours of local news will be included in this programming each week in Montreal and Quebec.
For the stations in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, the CRTC is requiring Remstar to increase its commitment to broadcast local news from 50 minutes each week to one hour.
The CRTC also mandated Remstar to broadcast at least 30 minutes of news programming every Saturday and Sunday on all TQS-affiliated stations.
The CRTC recognized that TQS has suffered and continues to suffer financially in granting the much lower local news requirements as “a temporary measure on an exceptional basis.”
The CRTC will hold a public hearing to relook at Remstar’s local news programming in spring 2011. The regulator stated that hearing will reassess Remstar’s priority programming and its plans for digital transition.
CRTC Commissioner Michel Morin dissented on the decision, calling it an exception “that risks prejudicing the entire Canadian broadcasting system.”
“The commission, as we have seen, seems to want to avoid, at any price, the bankruptcy of an over-the-air broadcaster in Quebec. The intention is laudable. But no matter the results, it will be too high a price to pay,” he wrote in his dissent.
He called the proposal by TQS-Remstar “inferior to everything being done elsewhere in Canada” by private broadcasters, and questions whether a third conventional network has a place in Quebec.
“TQS has shown itself to be a ship taking on water, listing from deficit to deficit, in spite of viewer levels that sometimes made its competitors, both public and private, break out in cold sweats,” stated Morin in his dissent. “In fact, in all of its 22 years of existence, TQS has shown positive profit before interest and taxes (PBIT) margins in only four years, three of them from 2002 to 2004.”
He refered to TQS as a “sinking ship” which the “the best talents have abandoned” as they no doubt foresee its imminent sinking.
Morin also said that Remstar hasn’t demonstrated that its will have enticing programming that could compete with Quebec’s other over-the-air broadcasters.
“How will TQS bring together its viewers and respect its Canadian content obligations if it does not offer newscasts?” he asked. “This is a fundamental question which remains unanswered after a four-day hearing.”
The CRTC decision follows a public process, which included public hearings on June 2 in Montreal, on June 3-4 in Quebec City, and on June 12 in Gatineau, Quebec.
