Broadcasting - Secretary General Letter addressed to Carol Ann Pilon (Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada) and Monica Auer (Forum for Research and Policy in Communications)
Gatineau, 17 July 2026
BY EMAIL
Carol Ann Pilon
Executive Director
Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada
capilon@apfc.info
Monica Auer
Executive Director
Forum for Research and Policy in Communications
execdir@frpc.net
Subject: Procedural Request by the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada Regarding the Application by TVA Group Inc. - 2022-1013-6
Dear Carol Ann Pilon and Monica Auer,
Thank you for your letters dated 27 March 2026 (the Alliance des producteurs francophones du Canada [APFC]) and 29 March 2026 (the Forum for Research and Policy in Communications [FRPC]) regarding the application submitted by TVA Group Inc. (TVA) (Application 2022-1013-6) to remove the conditions of service (CoS) relating to programming intended for official language minority communities (OLMCs) imposed in Broadcasting Decision 2017-147, namely:
- 18. The licensee shall broadcast at least six special events per broadcast year reflecting francophone life outside Quebec.
- 19. The licensee shall broadcast a weekly 30-minute program on Francophone life outside of Quebec.
In your respective requests, you ask the Commission to require TVA to file additional information on the public record that you consider essential to the assessment of its application, namely:
- The list of special events related to Francophone life outside Quebec broadcast by the TVA network from 2018 to 2025;
- The in-house and independent production expenditures incurred from 2018 to 2025 to meet the requirement to provide a weekly 30-minute program on Francophone life outside Quebec.
On 10 April 2026, TVA responded to APFC’s procedural request by providing a list of the programs broadcast to meet the CoS specific to OLMCs.
The purpose of this letter is to inform you of the Commission’s decision regarding this procedural request.
The Commission considers that the information requested, which regards the titles and duration of the independent productions broadcast as well as the list of special events relating to compliance with CoS 18 and 19, is public in nature, as it concerns elements relevant to the public record of the proceeding and is necessary to enable the parties to participate in an informed manner. In addition, the Commission is satisfied with the information provided by TVA in response to the request.
Regarding the requested data on independent and in-house production expenditures for programs associated with CoS 18 and 19, the Commission considers that the disclosure of production expenditures could contravene the provisions relating to confidential information set out in the Broadcasting Act (the Act), the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission Rules of Practice and Procedure, as well as Broadcasting and Telecom Information Bulletin 2010-961. It would likely cause harm to TVA’s competitiveness, given the limited number of programs and series to which they relate. However, this information would be of significant use to the Commission in its assessment of TVA’s application.
Accordingly, the Commission requests that TVA provide the requested information relating to independent and in-house production expenditures, while reminding TVA that it may designate this information as confidential in accordance with section 25.3(1) of the Act. If TVA designates the information as confidential, it must also provide an abridged version of this information.
In light of the above, the Commission requires TVA to submit to the Commission, within 10 days of the publication of this letter, the information regarding independent and in-house production expenditures related to OLMCs for the 2018 to 2025 period.
A copy of this letter is placed on the public record of the proceeding on the date of its publication. When TVA files the required information, it will also be placed on the public record unless it is designated as confidential.
Following this filing, interested parties will have a period of 5 days to submit comments. Subsequently, an additional 20-day consultation period, reserved exclusively for interventions from OLMC members (the OLMC consultation period that was scheduled prior to the suspension of the application), will be granted, after which the applicant will have a 10-day reply period.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Audrey Aubin, Senior Analyst, French-language audiovisual programming, at Audrey.Aubin@crtc.gc.ca.
Sincerely,
Marc Morin
Secretary General and Executive Vice-President
c.c.: Peggy Tabet, Québecor Inc., Peggy.Tabet@quebecor.com
- Date modified: