Potential described video costs ‘exorbitant’: TVA Group

Quebecor Inc.’s TVA Group has requested the modification of a condition of license requiring it to provide a certain amount of described video by Sept. 2019, according to a new Part 1 application. In its Nov. 1 letter, Quebecor claims that the costs to implement the described video by the assigned date would be “exorbitant.” In turn, the broadcaster has asked to narrow a condition for the renewal of a broadcast license. The licence condition was included in a May 2017 decision concerning the licence renewal for french language programming for the media organization, according to the application. In it, the described video requirement from the 2015 “Let’s Talk TV” regulatory policy was replaced by one which required all primetime programming of various genres between the hours of 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. have described video by Sept. 2019. Quebecor estimates that the costs of all programming after the date of Sept. 2019 would be $1.8 million and come in at 25,000 hours of work to complete. The letter also explained that to adhere to the condition of license, an additional estimated 38,000 hours of work and another $3.1 million would be necessary to add described video to programming which aired before the Sept. 2019 start date. That, according to Quebecor, could be as much as 20 per cent of its programming budget and is “completely unreasonable.” As a solution, Quebecor has requested that only the new programming which aired during and after the Sept. 2019 deadline be required to include described video. The public has until Dec. 8 to submit their comments to the CRTC on the matter. In a separate Part 1 application, TVA Sports has also requested an exemption to the allotment of advertising time during a 24-hour broadcast period. As of a May 2017 decision, the CRTC allows BCE Inc.’s sports channels to spread out the 12 minutes of advertising required each hour throughout the broadcast day. The commission concluded that “such flexibility is also appropriate for mainstream sports services, which depend on sports leagues for the scheduling of advertising material,” according to the decision. Since Bell has already had the exemption granted, TVA Sports has requested the same be applied to it in a letter dated Nov. 6.

Potential described video costs ‘exorbitant’: TVA Group

Brief | November 10, 2017

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Potential described video costs ‘exorbitant’: TVA Group

Brief | November 10, 2017

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