By Ahmad Hathout
OTTAWA – Quebecor’s TVA told Cartt that it wishes to work in collaboration with the CRTC to find a way to sustain its local programming, after the commission expressed concern that the Montreal-based company is planning to scale back two of its news programs on weekends in Quebec.
The CRTC set a deadline of July 4 for comments on Quebecor’s Part 1 application requesting the commission remove a requirement that it run two newscast on weekends in Quebec. But a day after filing its application, Quebecor announced it intended to eliminate the programs this week due to financial constraints.
Last week, the CRTC sent a letter to Quebecor stating its concern about Quebecor preempting the process.
“Staff is greatly concerned by TVA’s announcement, as it ignores the ongoing public process, the authority of the Commission, as well as the interest of citizens who keep themselves informed by watching the newscast in the Québec City region,” the CRTC said in the letter.
“Staff expects TVA to continue to meet its local programming requirements for its Québec station, including the requirement to broadcast two newscasts produced in Québec during the weekend,” the letter added. “Staff reminds TVA that its conditions of service have been imposed in the public interest and that the Commission will consider the public interest in determining whether these conditions should be amended.”
A Quebecor representative said the company will be filing a response to the CRTC shortly.
“TVA wishes to work in collaboration with the CRTC to find solutions that will ensure the sustainability of its activities,” a spokesperson for the company said.
There has been an acute surge in requests to the CRTC to lighten the regulatory obligation of broadcasters ahead of the commission retooling the Broadcasting Act as part of bill C-11.
In its own Part 1 application, Corus requested that its Canadian content obligations be reduced to weather its own financial battles, including a rough advertising market.
In submissions to the CRTC in the first round of consultations on the C-11 implementation, Bell said the priority right now should be alleviating broadcasters of what it and others are describing as onerous regulatory obligations that have not been refreshed to address the modern climate.
That climate, they say, includes foreign streamers that don’t have the same obligations they do to the Canadian system.
