Response to the President of the CBC/Radio-Canada

MONTRÉAL, May 25, 2016 /CNW Telbec/ - The Presidents and CEOs of three private Québec broadcasters – Sébastien Arsenault (Groupe Serdy), Maxime Rémillard (Groupe V Média) and Julie Tremblay (TVA Group) – have released the following response to recent comments made by Hubert Lacroix, President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada:

In a speech delivered in Vancouver yesterday, excerpts from which had already appeared in a Montréal daily, Hubert Lacroix, President and CEO of CBC/Radio-Canada, mischaracterized our position as a desire to keep the public broadcaster locked into the status quo.

In fact, we are not advocating the status quo but, on the contrary, a thorough review of CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate, as part of the comprehensive review of Canada's broadcasting system announced by the Minister of Canadian Heritage, in the course of which we plan to propose concrete, constructive solutions to the issues facing our industry.

As we have already pointed out, if there is no accountability for the additional $675 million that CBC/Radio-Canada is slated to receive, the already precarious balance between the public broadcaster and the rest of the industry will be destroyed. As no accountability measures have been announced thus far, we cannot help but fear that this funding will be a blank cheque for CBC/Radio-Canada to step up its already ferocious competition against private broadcasters.

With all due respect to Mr. Lacroix, the public broadcaster's maneuvers since the last budget seem to bear this out.

We have been astounded by the number and substance of Radio-Canada's program announcements, of which there have been more than 30 in recent weeks (see appendix 1).

There seem to be no constraints on the public broadcaster's quest for ratings: it is announcing big-budget variety shows, purchases of American series, and shows featuring A-list stars who command huge salaries.

There is no better example of this excess than the fact that ARTV, which is supposed to be Radio-Canada's cultural channel, has announced the cancellation of the literature show Lire just as it begins broadcasting the American series Empire and UnREAL, which it acquired by outbidding private Québec broadcasters.

A promotional document about ARTV's new schedule, which shows only American programs (see appendix 2), demonstrates the extent to which the channel has departed from its cultural mandate and adopted a steadfastly commercial approach.

Similarly, in its promotional materials, Explora highlights a fishing show (see appendix 3), a successful niche for the Évasion channel. Instead of trying to complement the private broadcasters, Radio-Canada is duplicating or even mimicking them.

While we are glad that the government has recognized the need to review Canada's broadcasting model as a whole, including the role of CBC/Radio-Canada, it may soon be too late for the medias we represent. We are therefore calling not for the maintenance of the status quo but rather a moratorium on the current flurry of announcements to give the government time to keep the promise it made in the budget, to the effect that funding for CBC/Radio-Canada would be accompanied by "a new vision, mandate and accountability plan."

In conclusion, we have always recognized that CBC/Radio-Canada has an important role to play in Canada's broadcasting system but we believe it is legitimate to insist that the public broadcaster should not be trying to outpace the private broadcasters by presenting us with a fait accompli consisting of new programming aggressively designed to expand its footprint in the broadcasting ecosystem at the expense of the other players. We hope our voices will be heard.

APPENDIX 1
Radio Canada's program announcements from February to May
(Click to access press releases)

Le combat des villes – Animé par Sébastien Benoit et Bianca Gervais

Empire – Sur ICI ARTV, la série de fiction (succès sur Fox)

Deuxième chance – Adaptation de la série The Gift  avec Marina Orsini et Patrick Lagacé

Info, Sexe et Mensonges – Une émission avec Marc Labrèche

Je vais à Rio – Avec Alexandre Despatie, un docu-réalité avec athlètes

PaparaGilles – Animé par MC Gilles, avec ajout de plusieurs collaborateurs

Véro.tv – EXTRA d'ICI Tou.tv

Partenariat avec ICI ARTE France – Coproduction internationale et acquisition des programmes d' ICI ARTE pour la télé ou la VSD

RéelleMENT – Acquisition de la série américaine UnREAL, maintenant diffusée à la SRC dans le créneau de minuit

Les échangistes – Talk-show avec Pénélope McQuade, produit par Éric Salvail

Fatale-Station – Série dramatique pour l'EXTRA d'ICI Tou.tv avec Micheline Lanctôt et Claude Legault

Lâcher prise – Comédie dramatique avec Sophie Cadieux et Sylvie Léonard

Les Simone – Comédie écrite par Kim Lizotte et Louis Morissette

Tou.tv – 5 nouvelles émissions québécoises originales: La vie n'est pas un magazine, Barman, À ne pas faire à la maison, L'écrivain public ainsi que Switch et Bitch

Remue-ménage – Nouveau magazine d'affaires publiques

Acquisitions sur Tou.tv – Downtown Abbey. En primeur Jackie, Les Goldberg, Mémoire sous enquête, Les enfants du pêché, Boss, Hawthorne, etc…

Première Plus – Service francophone de radio numérique à la carte gratuit

Parce qu'on est en 2016 – Sur Première Plus avec Pénélope McQuade

TROP – Comédie sur l'EXTRA d'ICI Tou.tv avec Éric Bruneau et Anne-Marie Cadieux

FEUX – Nouvelle série dramatique avec Daniel Brière, Fanny Malette et Sylvie Léonard

Vox pop – Avec André Robitaille

Wentworth – Série australienne sur l'EXTRA d'ICI Tou.tv

Mes petits malheurs – Comédie avec Catherine Proulx-Lemay et Jean-Michel Anctil

La vie n'est pas un magazine – Série originale de Tou.tv sur ICI ARTV

GIRLS – Saison 4 sur ICI ARTV

Déjà dimanche! – Émission d'affaires publiques avec Jean-Luc Mongrain et Marie-Soleil Michon

Les gourmands – Magazine culturel gastronomique animé par Francis Reddy et Ricardo

Véronique Cloutier – Grande émission de variétés hebdomadaire

District 31 – Nouvelle dramatique quotidienne avec Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Patrick Labbé, Hélène Florent, Sébastien Delorme et Vincent-Guillaume Otis

Au suivant – Nouveau jeu-questionnaire animé par Stephane Bellavance

SOURCE TVA Group

Image with caption: "APPENDIX 2: ICI ARTV (CNW Group/TVA Group)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160525_C4735_PHOTO_EN_699710.jpg

Image with caption: "APPENDIX 3: ICI Explora (CNW Group/TVA Group)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160525_C4735_PHOTO_EN_699712.jpg

Image with caption: "APPENDIX 3: ICI Explora (CNW Group/TVA Group)". Image available at: http://photos.newswire.ca/images/download/20160525_C4735_PHOTO_EN_699714.jpg

Groupe V Média: Guylaine O'Farrell, Director, Communications & Marketing, Phone: [phone] x2249, [email protected]; Groupe Serdy: Joanick Tétreault, Promotion Manager, Phone: [phone], [email protected]; TVA Group: Véronique Mercier, Vice-President, Communications, Phone: [phone], [email protected]