On the heels of recent news that the MaTV Montréal television channel is scheduled to shut down at the end of August 2024, André Desrochers, a filmmaker involved and active in local community television, has signed an open letter to the CRTC. 

Earlier this week, he sent a copy to Néomédia. Here it is in its entirety: 

The long-awaited decision has just been made. The community TV community was expecting it. MATV Montreal is closing its studios. After the closure of the Métro newspaper and the blocking of news by Méta, the greater Montreal area will be deprived of another source of local and community television news as of September 2024.

Just a few weeks ago, the world of community TV in Canada was celebrating a breakthrough with Bill C18. Indeed, community television channels managed by non-profit NPOs were inserted and identified in the Act (and no longer only in the Policy) as a major element enabling the community component of the Broadcasting Act to develop. Just like the community channels managed by broadcasting companies. These producers of 100% Canadian content and local news now sit on the same antenna of the Act as private producers, public producers and community channels managed and owned by cable operators.

But let's face it, since Québécor's acquisition of Videotron, it hasn't been a kid at heart when it comes to programming its community TV.

Particularly for its Greater Montreal license. Since the late 1990s, the CRTC has repeatedly criticized the company for non-compliant programming. 

Obligation to set up citizen programming committees - Obligation to modify programming

Obligation to modify its programming - Integration of linguistic and ethnocultural diversity in its programming - Greater citizen participation in program production, and so on.

Ironically, it was Québécor's actions with regard to its community TV that primarily triggered the introduction of the Community Channel Policy, and which still serves as the basis for the CRTC's regulation of this element of the Act.

Last month's celebrations came to a swift end on August 30. In a press release, Québécor announced the end of production activities for Montreal's MAtv channel. The cable company explained in its press release that it had taken the decision "...in a context of strong media competition and major financial challenges for the entire
television industry".

But the death of this outdated model had long been foretold. The CRTC itself has been painting the community element into the corner with its decisions for the past twenty years.

A little background 

First, when the Community Channel Policy was adopted in the early 2000s. The many NPOs that had just had their access to the airwaves withdrawn, but were participating in the vitality of the community channel, were asking for recognition and a portion of remuneration in exchange for delivering programs to the cable operator's community channel. The CRTC simply put in place a Community Channel Policy that underlined: 1- the recognition of these entities 2- the cable operator's obligation to give them access to the airwaves and 3- renewed the ban on conventional advertising, authorizing only the broadcast of prestige, societal and government advertising on this channel. But without demanding any royalties in exchange for the production of this 100% Canadian and local content.

Only a recommendation was made to distribution companies to "perhaps" remunerate NPOs, without obligation.Videotron was a good sport for a while, paying the NPOs for every half-hour of production.After reaching market-equivalent sums, paying a broadcasting station to make them a little more autonomous and able to put on air live programs such as bingo and local galas, at the time of the subsequent license renewals, the windfall was reduced, shrinking every year. Then, in the midst of the pandemic, royalties were cut off completely. This was not (and still is not) an obligation. The company is in financial trouble, so we cut...

Death foretold in 2016

The access producers that these NPOs are have had to use their imagination to finance their production.

In 2016, the CRTC announced and authorized the inevitable decline in the presence of community programming on the current broadcasting system (developed in a completely different context in the early 1990s, when the fax machine was the innovation of the day...), following minimal amendments to clarify certain points in the Policy.

Lacking the advertising revenues that used to fill the cable companies' coffers, and faced with a steady decline in cable subscribers in favor of online platforms, the latter came to the CRTC to ask for help by allowing them to use a portion of the Fund reserved for community programming to redirect it to the sister stations of their companies in financial difficulty.  At the same time, they asked the CRTC to be fair, and for the big GAFAMs of the world to pay their royalties to the Canadian system. The request for help was accepted.

Since then, Videotron has regularly redirected its funds to its private regional stations. Today, MAtv Montréal's production of local content programs is being shut down. After checking with several of the NPOs concerned, Vidéotron has promised that the channel will remain operational, but without programs produced by MAtv Montréal. With cable subscriptions and advertising revenues in freefall, what's Videotron's next cut?

Close the channel? Where will the access producers, the NPOs, be able to broadcast their programs?

The future looks bleak for the community element in this outdated model, especially in Montreal. There are 8 NPOs broadcasting from the Montreal license. Longueuil, Beloeil, Terrebonne-Lanaudière, Chateauguay, Vaudreuil-Soulanges, St-Jean sur-richelieu, Basse Laurentides St-Jérôme-Boisbriand, Repentigny.

If Videotron and the cable operators continue their mission to convince the CRTC (which has been going on behind the scenes for several years now) that the community channel is no longer a viable option in today's television stratosphere, and that it must remove the obligation on cable operators to air a community channel or finance a Community TV Fund owned by them in return for obtaining their license, the NPOs producing local access and content will be up against a wall for broadcasting their programs.

An alternative must soon be found to ensure the viability of community programming, which, it should be remembered, airs programs produced by, for and with the community. There's no more "local content" than community television programming. Not to mention the fact that it's the only production medium today that enables the passive viewer on the sofa to become an active spectator directly involved in the design, production and direction of programs that reflect his or her home; that ignites and nurtures a sense of belonging to one's community.

It's a cry from the heart that I'm launching today to the CRTC. I've been involved in community television for over 25 years, in my region, at the provincial and federal levels.

The current Notice of Consultation on Bill C18 (CRTC 2023-138), subtitled "The Way Forward", is an unparalleled opportunity for you to provide the tools needed to modernize the broadcasting system, to show the way forward. Not just to the other elements of the Act, not just to GAFAM, but also to those who are committed to growing the community element. Of course, the web giants must pay their fair share of royalties to use and deploy their content in our country, but we must take this opportunity to draw the future portrait that will insert community television into the digital world and out of the current straightjacket of being a simple "access producer" for cable operators. At the risk of repeating myself, NPOs are producers of 100% Canadian and local content.

You've just inserted them into the Broadcasting Act;

Heritage Canada has an agreement to help them with the Local Journalism program; Financial assistance has been deployed to help them get through COVID; You have included questions about its future in the broadcasting system in your Notice of Consultation;

Community television is a major asset and a unique way for the country to reach communities with local content that no other medium can offer. Now we need to ensure their longevity and their place in this new landscape, where conventional television is gradually drawing to a close.Videotron has just confirmed that the current model is obsolete for it, and it's only a matter of time before the other cable operators follow suit.

The CRTC has a unique opportunity to disenfranchise the NPOs that produce local content to their community TV in a simple "access producer" role.

Historically, putting a community channel on the air was an obligation for cable operators in exchange for using a public asset that belongs to Canadians: the airwaves. Just like forests, water, mines and all other resources.If the context has now changed, and the community channel is a disproportionate burden in achieving their regulatory and financial objectives, then perhaps we need to rethink the royalty. This would enable NPOs to free themselves from the current straitjacket, to become fully autonomous and participate in the Canadian system to the extent of their capacity.But as part of this new social contract, they would have to be given equitable access to the revenues enjoyed by the other elements of the broadcasting system.The development of a new regulatory framework for contributions to support Canadian and Aboriginal content must include NPOs. NPOs, which are now part of the Act.

André Desrochers, filmmaker 
245 Dunant Street
Beauharnois, Qc,
J6N 3P1
438-492-0874
Citizen of Beauharnois
Founding member of the Châteauguay TVC production team
Founding member of the Csur la Télé community television cooperative
Former director, Fédération des TVC autonomes du Québec
Former president of CACTUS
Still involved and "active" in local community television