TV License Renewal: Hard hit by declining revenues, French broadcasters ask CRTC for new yoga mat

By Steve Faguy

LAVAL – “There’s so much discussion of flexibility that you’d think we were at a yoga club,” cracked CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais during day one of the license renewal hearing for Canada’s French-language TV broadcasters.The broadcasters, as is their wont, called for more flexibility and reduced quotas for Canadian programming – and both Quebecor Media and Groupe V Média took shots at the national public broadcaster, even though it’s not part of the hearing.“We’re worried about the fact that Radio-Canada continues to stray from its mandate to adopt a resolutely commercial approach,” said TVA president Julie Tremblay (pictured), in French,...