TQS fights for survival by Roberto Rocha
Source : Montreal Gazette
Seeks protection from creditors. Competition from specialty networks eats into French-language audiences
December 19, 2007
Falling audiences and rising production costs drove French-language television network TQS to seek protection from creditors while its owners hatch a plan for its survival.
The five-station network, whose biggest draw is the Big Brother lookalike show Loft Story, has 30 days to reorganize its operations as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy.
Stiff competition from specialty cable networks is eating into its audiences and thus into advertising revenues, the company said in a statement.
The network, which employs 600 people, has been trying to convert into a specialty channel so it can charge a subscriber fee, but its request was quashed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC said that general interest television networks don't qualify for such fees.
This was a hit for parent company Cogeco Inc., which says that specialty TV enjoys lower programming costs and rising audience numbers.
"TQS is a victim of circumstances beyond its control," said Louis Audet, president and chief executive of Cogeco, which owns a 60-per-cent stake in TQS. The other 40 per cent is owned by CTV Inc.
"We are hopeful that (TQS's shareholders) will seize the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments to save francophone general interest television," Audet wrote in a statement.
TQS also blamed Radio-Canada, the CBC's French arm, for having a programming strategy that resembles a commercial station more than a public broadcaster.
Radio-Canada ended a 50-year affiliation partnership with TQS in the Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois Rivières.
"The loss of the SRC affiliation ... will undermine the viability of the TQS local services in the three local markets concerned and cause a deterioration of competitive position of TQS," the company had predicted in its 2007 annual report.
Audet said TQS operations will continue during the protection period. During this time, the company will no doubt decide on whether to renew TQS's broadcasting licence, which expires next August.
Also crucial to the network is finding additional capital over the next four years to convert its broadcasting to high definition before the CRTC outlaws analogue television in 2011.
Cogeco hired CIBC World Markets as an adviser in assessing the strategic options for TQS.
© Montreal Gazette
The five-station network, whose biggest draw is the Big Brother lookalike show Loft Story, has 30 days to reorganize its operations as it seeks to avoid bankruptcy.
Stiff competition from specialty cable networks is eating into its audiences and thus into advertising revenues, the company said in a statement.
The network, which employs 600 people, has been trying to convert into a specialty channel so it can charge a subscriber fee, but its request was quashed by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The CRTC said that general interest television networks don't qualify for such fees.
This was a hit for parent company Cogeco Inc., which says that specialty TV enjoys lower programming costs and rising audience numbers.
"TQS is a victim of circumstances beyond its control," said Louis Audet, president and chief executive of Cogeco, which owns a 60-per-cent stake in TQS. The other 40 per cent is owned by CTV Inc.
"We are hopeful that (TQS's shareholders) will seize the opportunity to make the necessary adjustments to save francophone general interest television," Audet wrote in a statement.
TQS also blamed Radio-Canada, the CBC's French arm, for having a programming strategy that resembles a commercial station more than a public broadcaster.
Radio-Canada ended a 50-year affiliation partnership with TQS in the Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois Rivières.
"The loss of the SRC affiliation ... will undermine the viability of the TQS local services in the three local markets concerned and cause a deterioration of competitive position of TQS," the company had predicted in its 2007 annual report.
Audet said TQS operations will continue during the protection period. During this time, the company will no doubt decide on whether to renew TQS's broadcasting licence, which expires next August.
Also crucial to the network is finding additional capital over the next four years to convert its broadcasting to high definition before the CRTC outlaws analogue television in 2011.
Cogeco hired CIBC World Markets as an adviser in assessing the strategic options for TQS.
© Montreal Gazette
