Quebecor threatens original content could suffer without fee-for-carriage

MONTREAL - In its appearance Monday at the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage hearings, Quebecor Media took the opportunity to pat itself on the back for spending over $370 million on “cultural content” in 2008. Calling the impact of its investment in cultural industries “substantial”, the Quebec media giant said that in fiscal 2008, it spent more than $373 million on developing, creating, producing, broadcasting and promoting Canadian content, making it the largest private producer of original content in Canada. The figure includes $123 million spent by its TVA Group on original television content for the Quebec market. Describing its...