OTTAWA – Quebecor doesn't mince words in its complaint against the Bell Broadcast and New Media Fund: "The decisions made by the board of directors of the Bell Fund in regard to three projects submitted in 2013 and set to be broadcast on TVA channels were not made in an objective manner and were discriminatory against TVA."
In a letter to the CRTC dated February 5 and made public on Monday, Quebecor's regulatory affairs director Peggy Tabet argues that the fund's decisions to refuse the three projects were made for "non-justified reasons" and concludes that they were made in a premeditated fashion for competitive reasons. The letter even alleges that representatives of the fund made disparaging remarks against Quebecor.
The Bell Fund, which receives funding from Bell TV's Canadian content spending obligations, plus $10 million in tangible benefits from the BCE/CTV acquisition, is certified as an independent production fund.
It provides financial support of up to 75% for digital media projects connected to television productions. It has a board of nine members, three of whom work for Bell's parent BCE. Another member of the board is an executive at Radio-Canada, Quebecor's main television competitor in Quebec, and two others had Bell or CTV as major clients in the past. One seat is currently vacant.
Quebecor's letter details reasons given to refuse funding for three digital media projects connected to TVA productions – a $258,000 project to go with TVA's nostalgia channel Prise 2, a $100,000 project connected to TVA's mega-hit singing competition show La Voix, and another $100,000 project connected to the TVA drama Toute la vérité.
TVA abandoned two of the projects when funding didn't come through, and funded the La Voix project itself. It is asking the CRTC to order the Bell Fund to refund the $100,000 to TVA.
Most surprising of all is remarks Tabet attributes to an unnamed representative of the Bell Fund during a telephone conversation in November. Tabet writes that the representative raised her voice in a discussion with TVA representatives, acted in a "disrespectful" manner and called Quebecor "tentacular."
The Bell Fund has until March 19 to file a reply to the commission.
Associate Director Claire Dion told Cartt.ca she could not comment about Quebecor's allegations until the board of directors meets to discuss it.
The Bell Fund has contributed more than $120 million to more than 1,000 projects since it launched in 1997. These include projects connected to all of Canada's major broadcasters, though projects related to Quebecor seem to have been less common in recent years. The fund's 2012 annual report, the latest one available, shows it gave funding to 19 production projects that year connected with CBC/Radio-Canada, 18 connected with provincial educational broadcasters like Télé-Québec, TVO and TFO, and 12 connected with Astral Media. But there were only three projects connected with Quebecor-owned channels, and all three of them were for children's programs.
Most large television providers have independent funds named after them. Rogers, Shaw, Quebecor, Cogeco and Telus each lend their names to independent production funds. The Quebecor Fund's latest two rounds of funding included seven projects connected to TVA channels, four connected to Radio-Canada and one connected to a Bell channel.
