OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC on Thursday renewed the licences of the French-language television services operated by TVA Group, Astral Media, and Canal Évasion, plus maintained the existing conditions of licence for V.
Noting that TVA has invested an average of 45% of its gross annual revenues in the production of Canadian programming over the last three years, the Commission approved its request to remove all requirements related to the type of programming it broadcasts.
The CRTC directed it to continue to provide the same quantity of dramas, musicals and documentaries that it currently broadcasts, plus devote 80% of its programming expenditures to Canadian programs, 5% more than initially proposed by TVA, which translates to an annual average of more than $110 million. In addition, the Commission maintained the mandatory distribution order for TVA on the basic service.
The only changes to TVA’s local programming requirements are for its station in Quebec City. Of the 18 hours of local programming, the station must air 5.5 hours of locally produced news, including two weekend newscasts, the CRTC said before awarding the broadcasting ownership group a three-year term from September 1, 2012 to August 31, 2015.
The CRTC approved Astral’s request to remove all limits on sharing programming expenditures, granting it the flexibility to redistribute its financial resources between its English and French-language television services in order to meet its Canadian content spending obligations.
Astral Media must now devote at least 30% of its gross annual revenues to the production of Canadian programming, including 16% on programs of national interest, which is 4% more than it initially proposed. According to 2012 revenue forecasts, this will mean an injection of more than $150 million into the Canadian broadcasting system over the next year. Astral Media’s licences will expire in five years, on August 31, 2017.
“The production and broadcast of Canadian programming are essential for the success of the Francophone television market,” said Tom Pentefountas, the CRTC’s vice-chairman of broadcasting, in a statement. “We are convinced that TVA and Astral will continue to make significant investments in order to offer their viewers varied and high-quality Canadian programming. For that reason, we have decided to give them more regulatory flexibility.”
When the CRTC approved Remstar Diffusion’s acquisition of V (formerly TQS) in 2008, it stated its intention to re-examine its conditions of licence regarding local and priority programming. The CRTC said Thursday that it has decided to maintain the same conditions until its next licence renewal in 2015, and accepted Remstar’s commitment to increase by 30 minutes the local newscasts for each of its stations, as well as the length of local news segments in each newscast.
The Commission also renewed the broadcasting licence for Canal Évasion’s specialty Category A service Évasion for a five-year term from September 1, 2012 to August 31, 2017. It also directed the service to spend a minimum of 46% of its gross annual revenues on the production of Canadian programming, and accepted its request to broadcast stick or ball sports for up to 10% of the broadcast month.
Lastly, in order to reduce the “Montréalisation” of the French-language airwaves, the CRTC said that it expects programs broadcast by all of the French-language specialty services to reflect the regions of Quebec and Canada.
