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| CRTC imposes strict conditions on TQS transaction, to be revisited in 2011 |
| Posted
on Thursday, June 26, 2008 - 11:30 AM |
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) today approved, subject to certain conditions, Remstar Diffusion inc.'s (Remstar) acquisition of the TQS Network and television stations in Montreal, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke and Saguenay. The Commission has also renewed the licences of these stations until 2015, but will re-examine the programming commitments after three years.
“Holding a licence to operate a conventional television station comes with certain responsibilities and obligations, one of which is to provide viewers with a significant amount of local news,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, Q.C., Chairman of the CRTC. “Remstar's proposal fell well short of this requirement. In this case, we have taken into account TQS's precarious financial situation and will allow, as a short-term measure and on an exceptional basis, a reduced amount of local news. We fully expect that TQS's situation will permit it to improve upon this amount within three years.”
The Commission has accepted Remstar's proposal to replace traditional newscasts with a new concept that features local programming in which current events are discussed and analyzed. At least two hours of local news will be included as part of this programming each week in Montreal and Quebec.
For the stations in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, the CRTC is requiring Remstar to increase its commitment to broadcast local news from 50 minutes each week to one hour. Over and above these amounts, Remstar will have to broadcast at least 30 minutes of news programming every Saturday and Sunday on all TQS-affiliated stations.
While these amounts are much lower when compared to other conventional television stations, the Commission recognizes that TQS has suffered, and continues to suffer, important monetary losses. For this reason, it has allowed for a temporary measure on an exceptional basis in order to give Remstar an opportunity to improve TQS's financial situation.
The CRTC will revisit the conditions relating to Remstar's news programming commitments during a public hearing that will be held in spring 2011. At that time, the Commission will also reassess the issue of priority programming and Remstar's plans for the transition from analog to digital broadcasting.
Today's decision follows a public process that included public hearings held June 2 in Montreal, June 3 and 4 in Quebec, and June 12 in Gatineau.
For more information about this decision:
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2008-129
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