Quebecor to stop TV fund payments

Wed, January 24, 2007

By CP

TORONTO -- A second major cable company is suspending payments to the Canadian Television Fund and urging Ottawa to review the way the CTF is managed.

Videotron, a cable company that's part of the Quebecor group of companies, said yesterday it is joining Shaw Communications in suspending payments to the fund.

Quebecor's top executive is also calling on Heritage Minister Bev Oda to launch a review of the management of the fund.

In a letter sent yesterday to Douglas Barrett, the fund's chairperson, Quebecor chief executive and president Pierre Karl Peladeau expressed "deep dissatisfaction with the fund's governance, performance and direction" and complained that "fund managers pay little heed to the main private-sector contributors to the fund and give little consideration to their point of view in decision-making.

"We fully intend to continue being a leading contributor to the financing of Canadian production, but we have decided to withhold our monthly contributions to the Canadian Television Fund until significant changes are made to its management and direction."

Videotron contributed $14.3 million to the fund in 2005, Quebecor said. The fund said it invested about $264 million in Canadian programming in 2005-06.

Quebecor also said there is "no justifiable reason" why the fund doesn't recognize video-on-demand's role in financing and disseminating Canadian content.

Luc Lavoie, an executive vice-president at Quebecor, said that to be eligible for funding, private producers must have a signed agreement with a broadcaster to buy a program. However, the fund doesn't recognize video-on-demand systems as legitimate broadcasters.

Videotron's Illico on Demand service logged nearly 20 million orders -- most for Canadian productions -- in 2006, in a market of 1.5 million subscribers, Lavoie said.

Quebecor is also upset that the fund reserves 37 per cent of production funding for CBC and its French-language counterpart, Societe Radio-Canada.