MONTREAL – The Canadian Association of Broadcasters has lost its most influential French-language member.
Quebecor Media-owned Le Groupe TVA, the country’s largest private French-language TV broadcaster, informed the CAB of its withdrawal in a letter on Friday, citing irreconcilable differences over how best to represent the interests of generalist TV networks. Its representatives have also resigned from all CAB committees.
“We do so with regret, and not without having tried, by every means, to convince the Association to be the voice for our concerns about the future of our broadcasting system and to respond to [our] legitimate expectations,” wrote Pierre Dion, Groupe TVA’s president and CEO in a letter to the CAB and its members. (The original letter was in French, which we have translated.)
In the letter – addressed to CAB president and CEO Glenn O’Farrell and board chair Charlotte Bell of Canwest, Dion is nonetheless conciliatory and expresses thanks to CAB staff, saying “we have appreciated the quality of the many services provided.”
However, Dion suggested the CAB may have become a victim of its broadened membership, which now includes pay and specialty TV as well as radio and OTA TV.
As a result, he said, “divergent interests are more and more evident. That leads to decisions of convenience and ultimately to defence of the status quo.”
“Unfortunately we see that the CAB is not able to adequately represent the interests of generalist TV whose future, in Quebec and in Canada, is being played out in the overhaul of the regulations that govern the production and distribution of Canadian content.
“Nor is the CAB able to propose satisfactory solutions regarding the challenges of the digital revolution in particular, and of the fragmentation of audiences and sources of financing, or to recognize the need to deregulate the relationship between broadcasters, distributors, and producers.”
Dion said “our common objective should be to contribute significantly to the modernization of the Canadian system, to promote our own content, and to encourage investment in this content. But the CAB is incapable of doing that.
“When Quebecor and Groupe TVA proposed investing significantly more in content, its promotion, and its use across broadcast platforms, the CAB preferred to ignore the consequences of the status quo for an organization such as TVA, and pleaded instead in favour of defence of the Canadian Television Fund.”
Dion pointed out that over the next two years, the federal government and the CRTC will be making important decisions that will have “considerable impact on the future of generalist TV, on Canadian content, and on the vitality of the Canadian broadcasting system.
“We will continue to plead for the major changes that would ensure a better future for the most important French-language broadcaster in Canada and, we hope, for the entire broadcasting system.”
Dion said that despite TVA’s pull-out from the CAB, it will continue to work with other broadcasters to bring about change. He also added the network would be happy to work with the CAB on specific issues.
– Glenn Wanamaker
