MONTREAL – Quebec’s Culture and Communications Minister Christine St-Pierre dropped a firecracker into the middle of the debate over the future of financially troubled broadcaster TQS last week, saying that if the private broadcaster disappears, Radio-Canada will be partly to blame.
“I think that if TQS dies, they’ll find a bullet from Radio-Canada close to the heart,” said St-Pierre who, until her election last year, was a Radio-Canada journalist in Ottawa and Washington.
Radio-Canada vice-president Sylvain Lafrance immediately dismissed the comment, saying the publicly-owned network has nothing to do with TQS’s liquidity problems.
Last year, Radio-Canada announced it would end its affiliation agreements with Télévision Quatre-Saisons in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, and Saguenay in 2009. The move will result in higher costs for TQS.
“But as that change does not take effect until 2009, it has absolutely nothing to do with TQS’s current problems,” Lafrance said. “There are plenty of other problems in the francophone television market to explain their precarious situation.”
Last month, TQS – owned 60% by Cogeco and 40% by CTVglobemedia – obtained court protection from creditors for 30 days. That protection expires Jan. 17th.
Claude Deraîche, TQS communications’ manager, told Cartt.ca Friday that it’s possible the network will seek an extension to the court protection period if a solution to its financial problems is not in place by Thursday.
The Court named the firm RSM Richter to oversee any bids. Last fall, TQS shareholders mandated CIBC World Markets to seek out potential buyers.
Published reports indicated that four or five, including Corus, Rogers, Radio-Nord Communications, and Transcontinental, expressed interest but that no firm bids were received.
TQS, which trails the TVA network and Radio-Canada in the Quebec market with about 15% overall market share, has been squeezed by the rise of speciality channels and a splintering of available advertising dollars.
But it has been particularly critical of the CRTC, which last May rejected the idea of carriage fees to help traditional broadcasters compete with fee-supported speciality channels. Under pressure, the CRTC now plans to take a second look at the idea during April’s policy hearing into broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services.
Glenn Wanamaker is Cartt.ca’s Quebec Editor.
