How far away the time seems, although not so long ago, when we believed that specialized channels would supplant generalist networks! Today, most of them seem condemned to certain death, with Quebecers unsubscribing en masse from cable. The closure of Vrak in the fall, then the replacement of Yoopa by QUB a few weeks ago, could be harbingers of a massacre. And for good reason, some channels have lost up to 40% of their revenues in just four years. Ultimately, only news and sports channels could survive.
What is the future of specialty channels? The duty had already asked the question less than two years ago. At the time, there was a movement away from cable in favor of online listening services, such as Netflix and Disney +. But we agreed that the cable channels could continue to survive, for a while at least, by reducing their original content offerings and broadcasting ever more foreign productions purchased at low cost.
“I think we have reached the tipping point here. It now appears obvious that most specialty channels will not be able to continue to exist. In twenty years, there probably won’t be many left,” predicts Sylvain Lafrance, the former vice-president of French services at Radio-Canada, now director of the media center at HEC Montréal.
The Vrak channel reached this “tipping point” last year. Bell pulled the plug on the old teen favorite channel in October. Deserted by its original audience, the channel ultimately broadcast mainly translated detective series. The last original production was a few years ago. Expenses were kept to a minimum, but after a certain point, viewer disinterest became too much for Bell to bear. Vrak’s revenues, drawn from advertising and subscriptions, had plummeted by around 45% between 2018 and 2022, according to figures from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
The youth channel Yoopa, which had recorded a 35% drop in revenue during the same period, was replaced in January by QUB, the television counterpart of digital radio that Quebecor launched in 2018. The company It has already been announced that Moi et Cie, which targets a female audience, will completely change its vocation in April by becoming Témoin, a new channel which will be devoted to crimes and scandals.
A positioning problem
Looking at the CRTC figures, we can predict that other cable channels will change their mandate, or disappear altogether, within the next few years, or even the next few months. The Z channel, aimed primarily at male viewers, lost 40% of its revenues between 2018 and 2022. Canal Vie and Canal D, both also owned by Bell Media, for their part saw their revenues decline respectively by 32% and 27% during this short period.
Bell did not wish to answer questions from Duty. Quebecor also did not respond to our request for an interview. The man who was vice-president of original content at Quebecor until last June, Denis Dubois, for his part agreed to comment on the future of cable television.
“The problem with the specialist channels is that they tried to cast as wide a net as possible. But when you try to talk to everyone, you talk to no one. The few specialty channels that will manage to survive will be those that have a clear positioning,” says Mr. Dubois, who experienced the heyday of specialty television when he was at Astral Media in the early 2000s.
Sport, a special case
By “clear positioning”, Denis Dubois especially has in mind the sports and continuous news channels “which are still capable of creating the event live”.
RDS and TVA Sports both saw their number of subscribers drop between 2018 and 2022. But the revenues earned by sports channels remain stratospheric compared to those of other specialized channels.
“The case of sport is interesting. Yes, people are interested, but the costs for broadcasting rights are astronomical, which means that, even if the income is there, the sports channels are making losses because the expenses are too high,” explains Sylvain Lafrance, in referring in particular to TVA Sports, which has proven to be a financial pit for Quebecor since its launch in 2011.
When Mr. Lafrance was vice-president of French services at Radio-Canada, the public broadcaster withdrew its money from sport, among other things because broadcasting rights had become exorbitant. And it’s worse today. Sports channels must increasingly fight against the big platforms for the broadcast of major events. TVA Sports also lost the broadcast rights to CF Montreal matches in 2022 after an agreement between Major League Soccer (MLS) and Apple TV.
“Sport is very globalized. And the large platforms therefore have an advantage in obtaining broadcast rights for major international events. This is something that could worry sports channels in the medium term,” believes Sylvain Lafrance.
Two news channels, two realities
As for news channels, their long-term future is not in question by many in the industry. RDI and LCN, however, seem to be operating in parallel realities, given the CRTC figures.
However, also facing a drop in subscribers, Quebecor’s continuous news channel has managed to increase its revenues, in particular thanks to advertising. LCN’s revenues increased by almost 13% between 2018 and 2022, which defies the general trend.
Conversely, RDI reaches many more subscribers in the country, which guarantees it more revenue than the competing channel. But the public broadcaster’s news service is not immune to the consequences of the wave of cable unsubscriptions. In four years, despite the renewed interest in information during the pandemic, RDI has lost 17% of its revenue.
“We should not compare RDI to our competitors, even if I respect what they do. We have a mandate. We are the news agency for French speakers across the country. It allowed us to cover the wildfires this summer in British Columbia and the Northwest Territories, rather than doing opinion work all day. I am very proud of our mandate and I cannot imagine what the French-speaking television landscape would be like if RDI did not exist,” asserts Luce Julien, general director of information at Radio-Canada, with conviction.
Should viewers have the right to subscribe to RDI, for a few dollars, rather than paying for a very expensive cable package that includes channels that almost no one watches? When asked the question, Luce Julien just displays an enigmatic smile.
“Cable operators are very keen on these packages, which give access to lots of channels. But sooner or later, the CRTC will have no choice but to ease regulations to allow people to subscribe individually to the channels they want, without having to pay for an entire package. The market will eventually demand it,” responds his former superior at Radio-Canada, Sylvain Lafrance.