News Release

July 5, 2001

CRTC APPROVES QUEBECOR ACQUISITION OF TVA ON THE CONDITION IT SELL TQS, RENEWS TVA’S LICENCE FOR ANOTHER SEVEN YEARS

OTTAWA-HULL — The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approves, subject to specific condition precedent, the transfer of control of Groupe TVA (TVA) to Quebecor Media Inc. (QMI) and renews TVA’s licence and its network licence for seven years.

QMI acquisition of TVA

A number of conditions have been imposed on the acquisition, most notably a condition precedent that requires QMI to sell TQS inc. (TQS) to a third party, not associated with Quebecor and its affiliates. The sale of TQS must be completed before QMI can acquire control of TVA and its regulated assets. QMI has until September 21^st, 2001 to satisfy all the requirements of this condition.

A similar condition will apply to future cases in which the CRTC requires the sale of other assets or business interests. By doing this, the CRTC aims to maintain a healthy and dynamic competitive environment, and ensure that all applications of this nature are treated equally. To this effect, today the CRTC issued a separate public notice outlining this new policy.

In approving the transaction, the Commission also imposes a number of other conditions. They include the following:

• Tangible benefits package
  The Commission approved an increased tangible benefits package of $48.9 million to be spent over a 7-year period. Consistent with the Commission’s television policy, this figure represents 10% of the value of the transaction. The money will benefit the overall broadcasting system and will support on-screen and other activities. QMI will also be required to file a detailed annual report demonstrating that these benefits are above all existing TVA requirements.
  
• Diversity of voices
  The Commission agreed to a number of safeguards proposed by Quebecor in view of the scope of this transaction and in response to concerns expressed regarding the need to preserve the diversity of voices in Quebec:
  • The independence of TVA, LCN and LCN Affaires will be upheld.
  • TVA management will be separate and independent from QMI’s newspapers. This will entail separate office buildings and separate computer systems.
  • No more than 40% of the board of directors of TVA will be members of the boards of directors of Quebecor, QMI or any other entity controlled by Quebecor or QMI.
  • QMI will respect the code of professional conduct approved by the Commission and establish a monitoring committee to review complaints on matters covered by it.

Renewal of TVA’s licence

Conditions of TVA licence renewal

The Commission set out a number of conditions of licence for TVA. Here are the main ones:

• Priority programming
  Under the terms of the licence renewal, the Commission expects TVA to continue to meet the priority programming requirements for large multi-station ownership groups during the peak viewing period.
  
• Local and regional programming
  The Commission expects TVA to continue to meet the needs of the communities served by its regional stations, not only in terms of news, but also in terms of the development and broadcast of programs in other content categories produced in the regions. The CRTC will conduct an exhaustive review of TVA’s performance in this area when it conducts the licence renewal for all of TVA’s regional stations in 2003.
  
• Service to Francophones outside Quebec
  The Commission expects TVA to continue to meet the commitments it agreed to when it applied for national distribution of its signal. In addition, the Commission expects TVA to expand its news coverage to better serve the Francophone population outside Quebec. To this end, the Commission encourages TVA to continue its consultation activities with its advisory committee, which is committed to working closely with Francophone groups to better represent their interests and increase their viewing of TVA.
  
• Advertising
  The Commission denied TVA’s request to be exempted from section 11(1) of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987. TVA must continue to abide by the 12 minute per clock hour limit on advertising.
  
• Closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired
  TVA must increase the amount of closed-captioning for the hearing-impaired. Consistent with the Commission’s TV policy, for the first time, the Commission is requiring a French-language broadcaster to close-caption 100% of news within 3 years and 90% of all programming by the end of the licence-term.

TVA will be expected to broadcast an increasing number of Canadian feature films over the years of its licence.

TVA must submit within 3 months, a corporate plan that outlines how it will address the need to ensure ethnic and cultural diversity.

TVA must increase the availability of descriptive video.

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General Inquiries:
     Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0N2
     Tel: (819) 997-0313, TDD: (819) 994-0423, Fax: (819) 994-0218
     Toll-free # 1-877-249-CRTC (2782), eMail: info@crtc.gc.ca 
     TDD - Toll-free # 1-877-909-2782
Media Relations:
     Denis Carmel, Tel: (819) 997-9403, eMail: denis.carmel@crtc.gc.ca 

Copies of today’s documents are available through our Internet site (http://www.crtc.gc.ca) or by contacting the public examination room of any CRTC office. These documents are available in alternative format upon request.

Date Modified: 2001-07-05

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