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Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2020-317

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Reference: Part 1 application posted on 15 June 2020

Ottawa, 31 August 2020

TV5 Québec Canada
Across Canada

Public record for this application: 2020-0318-5

TV5/UNIS TV – Licence amendment

The Commission approves an application by TV5 Québec Canada to amend the broadcasting licence for the national, French-language discretionary service TV5/UNIS TV in order to amend its condition of licence requiring that, in each broadcast year, the licensee devote to the broadcast of original French-language programs at least 90% of the Canadian programming for each feed.

Application

  1. The Commission has the authority, pursuant to section 9(1) of the Broadcasting Act (the Act), to issue licences for such terms not exceeding seven years and subject to such conditions related to the circumstances of the licensee as it deems appropriate for the implementation of the broadcasting policy set out in section 3(1) of the Act, as well as to amend those conditions on application of the licensee.
  2. TV5 Québec Canada filed an application to amend the broadcasting licence for the national, French-language discretionary service TV5/UNIS TV. Specifically, it wished to amend the wording of the French-language version of condition of licence 2c), set out in the appendix to Broadcasting Decision 2018-344, which indicates that, in each broadcast year, the licensee shall devote to the broadcast of original French-language programs at least 90% of the Canadian programming for each feed.
  3. The licensee proposed to replace “diffusion d’émission originales de langue française” with “diffusion d’émissions de langue originale française.” It indicated that Broadcasting Decision 2003-77 has the appropriate wording, that is, it refers to the original language of the production, and that an editorial error was introduced in the last two licence renewal decisions (Broadcasting Decisions 2013-384 and 2018-344). Further, it indicated that a literal interpretation of the current wording would imply that 90% of the hours of Canadian programming broadcast on each of the feeds would be original French-language programs, i.e. first-run programming, and that this requirement is unrealistic.
  4. The licensee specified that the application is not intended to change TV5/UNIS TV’s programming, which will continue to give a prominent place to French-language audiovisual productions, both Canadian and international.
  5. The Commission did not receive any interventions in regard to this application.
  6. The Commission acknowledges that condition of licence 2c) should have been written in such a way as to relate to the original language in which the Canadian production was created. Therefore, it considers that the proposed amendment would simply aim to correct this condition of licence and would not have an impact on the service’s programming.

Conclusion

  1. In light of all of the above, the Commission approves an application by TV5 Québec Canada to amend the broadcasting licence for the national, French-language discretionary service TV5/UNIS TV so that the French version of condition of licence 2b) reads as follows:

    2c) Au cours de chaque année de radiodiffusion, le titulaire doit consacrer à la diffusion d’émissions de langue originale française au moins 90 % de la programmation canadienne pour chacun des signaux.

Secretary General

Related Documents

This decision is to be appended to the licence.

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