Groupe TVA is doing an about-face and backtracking on its original intention to stop broadcasting local newscasts in Quebec City on weekends, starting this week. The private broadcaster is thus complying with the requirements of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), but warns that it will therefore have to make “further staff reductions”.
Earlier this month, the broadcaster announced the end of its two weekend newscasts in Quebec City starting the week of June 19. The CRTC then reacted, in a letter sent to the TVA Group on June 16 to urge it to “respect its local programming requirements imposed on its station in Quebec, including that of broadcasting two newscasts produced in Quebec during the weekend “. These rules, wrote the CRTC at the time, were imposed “in the public interest” and must be respected, under penalty of sanctions.
“Thus, if TVA ceases broadcasting its two newscasts on weekends in Quebec City as planned, it could then find itself in non-compliance with its regulatory obligations and the Commission could have recourse to the measures available to it under the powers conferred on it by the Broadcasting Act,” the letter added.
In a response to the CRTC sent on Tuesday, Quebecor Media, which owns Groupe TVA, confirmed that the private broadcaster’s newscasts will finally be maintained on weekends in Quebec. This decision will not be smooth sailing, however, the company warned. “Under the present circumstances, we will have to carry out further staff reductions which constitute, as you know, the largest proportion of our expenses”, warns Quebecor Media in its letter, of which The duty got a copy.
Financial precariousness
In this document, the media group argues that the elimination of newscasts on weekends in Quebec was a “responsible” decision in the context of its precarious financial situation. “Would the Council prefer that TVA carry out massive closures instead of making responsible decisions to avoid such an end? “Questions Quebecor Media, who notes that the broadcaster could have taken” other more drastic measures “without touching its conditions of license with the CRTC, for example by closing its regional station in Quebec City altogether.
“Far from being an affront to the jurisdiction of the CRTC, the measure taken in Quebec was for TVA the most responsible decision in the circumstances to reduce its operating costs”, argues the management of the public broadcaster in an email sent At Duty Tuesday evening. It also indicates that by suspending its decision to end its local newscasts in Quebec on weekends, the broadcaster hopes to be able to “work in collaboration with the CRTC to find solutions responding to the financial situation extremely difficult for broadcasters across North America”.