QUEBEC CITY – Just in case their scepticism towards Remstar’s plan to save Quebec’s sinking TQS network wasn’t clear enough after a third day of public hearings, the CRTC has spelled it out and given the company a final chance to make its case for a broadcast licence.
After wrapping up its hearings Wednesday, the Commission sent a list of issues it wants addressed in the next week, and asked Remstar to submit a “new programming proposition” that includes Category 1 regional or local news programming, “in a format of its own choosing,” said the CRTC.
But it added that it’s “open to examining an innovative concept, different from the traditional news program.”
In its plan to resuscitate the “clinically dead” TV network, Remstar’s owners Maxime and Julien Rémillard want to eliminate traditional news programming and replace it with commentary, analysis, and viewer-generated material. It began the process last week, laying off journalists and cutting back newscasts. By September, all newscasts will end and 270 people will be out of work.
Remstar, a Montreal-based film and television production company, says existing news programming has been the network’s biggest money-loser, and it wants to reorient the network towards the 18-49 year old audience which doesn’t watch traditional news programming.
The problem Remstar faces is that under the Broadcasting Act, generalist networks are required to provide local and regional news – a point made repeatedly during the hearings.
“You’re asking us to make an exception, one that would be in violation of our policy,” CRTC Chair Konrad von Finckenstein told Maxime Rémillard Monday, and then implored him: “How can we justify giving you a licence when you contemplate not having any news?”
The CRTC has other questions for Remstar as well. It wants to know more precisely how Remstar will finance its rebuilding plan and the sources of the money, and it repeated the demand made by the CRTC’s broadcasting vice-chair Michel Arpin to see the financial statements of both Remstar and the two Rémillards.
On Monday, Arpin said flatly that without this information, the CRTC will reject the licence application.
As well, the Commission said TQS should present a detailed plan on how it will increase the number of hours of priority programming, and asked that it commit itself to setting up an adequate system to show that it’s meeting Canadian content requirements.
Commissioner Michel Morin said Tuesday that reports to the CRTC indicated TQS had not been meeting these requirements. TQS denied this is the case, saying there was an error in the data submitted.
Finally, the Commission asked for more information about revenue generated from local ad sales, compared with local programming expenses, and about its plan to provide program sub-titles for the hearing impaired.
Meanwhile, after its final submission, the union representing TQS employees in Quebec City circulated a letter from the Toronto-based investment fund, Catalyst Capital, whose offer to buy TQS was rejected last winter.
Catalyst indicated it’s still interested in buying TQS, and said that its plan would preserve news programming.
Glenn Wanamaker is Cartt.ca’s Quebec Editor.
