Group wants to launch new Montreal community channel instead of Videotron

A coalition of activists and community broadcasters are asking the CRTC to postpone its decision on Videotron Ltd.’s application for a new English-language community TV station in Montreal to allow them to prepare their own competing application. In regulatory documents filed with the CRTC Monday, the newly founded group, called the Steering Committee for an Independent Community TV Channel for Montreal, said Videotron should not be allowed to launch the new community TV channel the company proposed last month because it did not promise enough opportunities for community-driven programming. The group, comprised of campus and community broadcasters and activists, said Videotron would operate the proposed community station like a conventional TV channel, and would not offer sufficient training and equipment to support community-driven programs. “The fact that the company has submitted its licence application for an English-only community channel in French only, has conducted no public outreach in support of its application, and intends to operate this second community channel from its existing consolidated facility gives us no confidence that the company has the will or the ability to operate what are meant to be community-based resources to promote dialogue,” the group said in its intervention opposing Videotron’s application. “We request that the Commission delay a decision on Videotron’s licence amendment for 60 days in order to develop a formal application for such a licence,” it said. Videotron, a Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary, said in its application last month that the proposed new channel, to be called MYtv, would be similar to its French-language community channel MAtv, and would provide programming about Montreal’s English-language community, including “social and community affairs, public and municipal affairs, arts and culture,” among other subjects. The company proposed to redirect to the new station 40 per cent of the Canadian content funding obligations it incurs as a broadcast distributor in Montreal, a move that is permitted under CRTC rules. Those funds, Videotron added in a press release, would help create 30 jobs, including hosts, researchers, columnists and journalists. Cathy Edwards, a member of the steering committee group and the executive director of the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS), said in separate comment to the CRTC that the positions Videotron seeks to fill at the new station suggest the company would run MYtv as a “de facto conventional television channel” and not as a community TV station, which according to the regulations are required to air more amateur and community-produced content. “If Videotron were planning to structure MYtv as a genuine ‘community channel’, one would expect to see job titles such as ‘community facilitator’, 'volunteer co-ordinator’, and ‘outreach director’,” she said. Edwards added that Videotron’s plan to use professional, independent productions to fulfill its “access” obligations also falls outside of the CRTC’s rules for community stations, which say access programming should be produced by volunteer community members or independent community services. She also took issue with Videotron’s proposal to carry separate community channels for Montreal’s French- and English-language communities. “‘Community media’ is meant to provide an open-access platform for expression and the exchange of ideas among all citizens of an areas,” she said. “nclusivity is the key.” Other groups that opposed Videotron’s application included the Canadian Media Production Association (CMPA) and the Directors Guild of Canada (DGC), which were concerned about the company’s plan to redirect funds from its Canadian content obligations, as well as the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA). Edwards and other critics of the proposal said Videotron should expand its existing MAtv community station to include English-language programming—as well as programming for other Montreal-area minority groups—instead of launching a separate station to serve Montreal’s anglophone community. She said allowing Videotron to redirect more of its Canadian programming obligations to launch a second Montreal-area community station “is tantamount to rewarding the company for its failure” to cater to minority communities on MAtv. Montreal-based English-Language Arts Network (ELAN) said it supports the Videotron application, and that it would serve an English-language community in Montreal that Videotron’s other channels have not served in recent years. “MAtv management has acknowledged Videotron’s past failure to provide service to its English-speaking subscribers,” ELAN said in its submission to the CRTC. “They have asked to turn the page and collaborate with the English-speaking community to create a new community TV channel that will serve the needs of Quebec’s English-speaking community as well as Videotron’s corporate goals of providing a high-quality branded products for its subscribers.” ELAN said it was concerned by several “ambiguous matters” in the Videotron application, though it added the plan was “developed so quickly” that it is “little more than an outline based on the existing MAtv model,” and is not “a cause for alarm.” As part of its application, the Montreal steering committee group proposed that an independent, nonprofit organization be given a licence to operate a new, multilingual community station in Montreal. The group said it could submit a formal application for the station within 60 days. Peggy Tabet, Videotron’s senior director of broadcasting and regulatory affairs, said in an email that the steering committee’s criticism of the company’s application is meant to justify its proposal to operate a new community station in Montreal, a proposal she said the commission previously rejected in 2010. “Contrary to the allegations of CACTUS and the Steering Committee, MYtv’s programming will be designed for the English-speaking community, by the English-speaking community and with the English-speaking community,” Tabet said. “In fact, more than 50 per cent of MYtv’s community programming would be devoted to access programs, whose creative control would remain in the hands of community members. Moreover, MYtv will have its own creative and programming teams which are independent from MAtv's.” —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Anja Karadeglija at akarad@thewirereport.ca

Group wants to launch new Montreal community channel instead of Videotron

News | October 8, 2013

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Group wants to launch new Montreal community channel instead of Videotron

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