By Ahmad Hathout
TVA Group will be able to broadcast fewer newscasts and hours of local programming to allow it to be nimbler in a rough financial environment, the CRTC ruled Monday.
TVA parent company Quebecor a year ago filed to the CRTC the request to ease the regulatory obligations on CFCM-DT in Quebec City, saying it would need some relief from the need to broadcast two newscasts every weekend and reduce by two hours the requirement to maintain 18 hours of local programming per week. The alternative to that, it warned, is that it would have to make “difficult choices,” including cuts to the station.
The regulator on Monday granted the narrow exemption to the station as a condition of operation, saying it need not broadcast two newscasts on weekends, reduced to 16 the number of hours of local programming per broadcast week, and relieved of it the requirement to broadcast on TVA a certain number of hours of other programs that focus specifically on the Quebec region.
TVA will now be required to broadcast at least nine hours of programming that focuses specifically on the Quebec region, including at least five hours and 30 minutes of newscast produced in Quebec. Quebecor has said that it has already been exceeding its regulatory obligations on this front.
“In light of the above, the Commission is of the view that the modified requirement, as proposed by TVA, would ensure the broadcast of programs that focus specifically on the Québec region and the maintenance of news production at the Québec station,” the CRTC said in its decision.
“The removal of the requirement to broadcast two newscasts produced in Québec on the weekends on CFCM-DT would have a limited impact on news programming and on the workforce of the Québec station, while providing the licensee with certain relief enabling it to cope with a difficult financial situation,” the CRTC said, adding if TVA decides to reduce news on weekends, it would have to make it up during the week.
The CRTC found that while revenues in the private conventional television market in Quebec were relatively stable from the previous licence renewal period of 2017 to 2018 and 2021 to 2022, TVA’s six conventional TV stations recorded decreasing revenues and cumulative losses in those broadcast years.
Quebecor last summer announced the unilateral decision – without commission approval – to end two of the CFCM-DT weekend newscasts, but quickly turned around and abandoned the plan, opting instead to wait for a CRTC decision on the matter. However, it said it would need to make staff reductions.
That came months later, when TVA announced the elimination of 547 jobs, or 31 per cent of its workforce due to bad financial times and changing viewing habits, including Canadians moving over to streaming platforms.
The regulator on Monday also approved exceptional relief for Corus, which included a reduction in the percentage it spends from its prior year’s revenues toward programs of national interest and a longer payback period for deferred payments toward its Canadian content obligation.
It appears now that other broadcasters, including Bell and Rogers, will have to wait for their own requested relief when the CRTC implements the regulations of the Online Streaming Act, which modifies the Broadcasting Act. The timeline for implementation of those rules was recently extended.
