French group licence renewal hearings start Monday in Quebec

Astral Media Inc. is expected to continue its fight for a bilingual designation during the CRTC's French-language television licence renewal hearings that start Monday in Quebec. The hearings will also consider group-based licence renewals for the broadcast properties of Quebecor Media Inc., which owns Groupe TVA Inc. and Serdy Media Inc., which runs video and studio production houses in Quebec and owns French-language specialty channels Évasion and Zeste. But Astral's battle for a bilingual designation has so far become the most contentious issue of the French-language renewals for large broadcast groups. In an application to the commission, Astral argued that a bilingual designation is justified because the company is the only non-vertically integrated broadcasting group in the country. The company requested that the commission “relax the rules” for its services by allowing it to be designated as a bilingual broadcast group, allowing it the flexibility to shift programming obligations between its French- and English-language services. The request was met with opposition from the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC) and the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC), which argued that the increased flexibility would allow the company to account for more Cancon expenditures on its French-language services where it spends significantly on Canadian programming. The licence renewal hearings start Monday in Quebec City, where hearings will be held Dec. 5 to 6. They then move to Montreal for Dec. 8 to 9. Quebecor has argued that Astral’s financial position should preclude it from receiving further flexibility from a group-based licence approach. Astral wrote in a response to interveners submitted to the CRTC on Oct. 7, 2011, that forcing the company to obtain French- and English-language television licences individually would be “unfair” because it competes in a vertically integrated market. Astral seeks to renew a total of 16 television services during the proceeding, of which five are English-language and 11 are French. “It’s about 45 per cent of our English-language services and about 55 per cent for our French-language services,” Hughes Mousseau, Astral’s manager of corporate communications said in a previous interview with The Wire Report. The CRTC held a hearing in April for the licence renewals of the private, English-language broadcasting groups. CBC/Radio-Canada, as a public broadcaster, will have a separate hearing scheduled for June. news@thewirereport.ca --- CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said the hearings start in Montreal. They begin in Quebec City.

French group licence renewal hearings start Monday in Quebec

Broadcast | December 4, 2011

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