Videotron assessing options after CRTC says it violated community TV policy

By Lesley Hunter

OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Videotron’s French-language community channel MAtv is not serving the diverse cultural communities in Greater Montreal, the CRTC told the Quebec broadcaster Wednesday, before approving its request for an English community channel. MAtv is available to approximately 1.8 million homes in Montreal, Québec-Lévis, Sherbrooke, Cap-de -la- Madeleine, Sorel-Tracy, Granby, Netherlands St. Lawrence, Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Ottawa. After a complaint in January 2014 by a group calling itself Independent Community TV, the Commission reviewed program logs submitted by Videotron for MAtv. Its investigation concluded that during the week in question, the channel devoted only 30.2% to access programming (the required percentage is 45%)...