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Ottawa, 13 March 1986
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Decision CRTC 86-214
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Vidéotron Ltée
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Montreal, Quebec - 853130300
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Following a Public Hearing in Montreal on 21 January 1986, the Commission approves the application by Vidéotron Ltée for a broadcasting licence to operate, on an experimental basis and for a short term expiring 31 August 1987, a cable television network to distribute via satellite to affiliated cable companies in the province of Quebec, the special French-language programming service "Télé des Jeunes".
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The undertakings authorized to be affiliated to this network will be specified in a schedule that will be appended to the licence. In accordance with Public Notice CRTC 1985-252 dated 20 November 1985, any addition or deletion of affiliates requires the prior approval of the Commission.
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It is a condition of licence that no advertising material be part of this special programming service.
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This application is the result of a joint project by the licensee, the Association des câblodistributeurs du Québec (ACQ) and the Société d'Édition et de Transcodage T.E. Ltée (SETTE), to offer, in a practical and economomical way, additional French-language programming services to a greater number of cable companies. The project is part of the Telesat Canada experimental program that allows satellite services to be rented at a lower cost for a specific period, during which time the viability of such services may be assessed.
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The licensee first offered the special programming service, "Télé des Jeunes", on the South Shore of Montreal (Decision CRTC 75-333), and later in Montreal itself when the licensee acquired National Cablevision Ltd. in 1980 (Decision CRTC 80-494). This service currently is available to more than 500,000 Quebec households through the member broadcasting undertakings of Intervision (Montréal) Inc. and Intervision (Québec) Inc. of Vidéotron Ltée. With the approval of this application, the service will be made available to nearly 300,000 more households. It will provide a weekly total of 98 hours of broadcasting, serving the following age groups, by percentage of time: 60% for preschool (ages 3 to 6); 25% for elementary school (ages 6 to 11); and 15% secondary school (ages 11 to 15).
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Under the terms and conditions of the agreement reached by the parties concerned, this service will be made available at cost price to interested broadcasting undertakings (about 70 already have indicated interest). A certain portion of this amount will be allocated to improving the programming of this service.
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In approving this application, the Commission has taken into consideration the fact that the licensee, in order to meet CRTC requirements, submitted an application for a network licence; the fact that this service already was being provided to many homes in Quebec; and that this experimental service is for a specific period of time. The Commission notes that if this experiment is successful other services could be offered, in keeping with the Commission's objective of expanding as much as possible the range of French-language television services available to the francophone population of Canada, particularly in Quebec.
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The Commission will take into consideration the results of this experiment in assessing any application for licence renewal, and applications for a children's/youth/family television programming service will also be examined in the context of these developments. Consideration of such applications has been deferred at the request of the Task Force on Broadcasting Policy (Public Notice CRTC 1985-155 dated 22 July 1985). The Commission has taken note of the interventions submitted in regard to this application by Télé-Jeunesse Canada/Young Canada Television, which does not object as long as the licence expires on 31 August 1987, and by the CBC.
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The Commission notes that in its reply to the opposing interventions that were submitted by the Associa-tion des producteurs de films et de vidéo du Québec and the Union des Artistes de Montréal, the licensee stated that the percentage of Canadian content on the "Télé des Jeunes" service, based on the number of broadcast hours, currently is about 20%, and that a minimum level of at least 20% would be maintained during the licence term.
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Should the Commission receive an application for renewal of this licence, any terms and conditions related to the operation of this service would be the subject of a more in-depth public process, particularly with regard to Canadian content and the role of Vidéotron Ltée as a programmer.
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Fernand Bélisle
Secretary General
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