Cogeco and Bell are petitioning the CRTC to stop retransmission on the FM band of QUB, Quebecor’s talk radio station. The two main players in the radio industry maintain that the arrival of QUB on the airwaves last August deviates from the regulations.
Posted at 4:25 p.m.
The CRTC, the body that regulates telecommunications in the country, currently strictly prohibits the same owner from operating a TV station, a radio station and a written daily newspaper in the same market. Quebecor, already owner of TVA and the Montreal Journalcannot therefore, according to these rules, strictly speaking own a frequency on FM waves in the metropolitan region.
However, last August, Quebecor sealed an agreement with Leclerc Communication, owner of 99.5 FM, formerly WKND. Since then, this antenna, which was previously musical, broadcasts the weekday programming of QUB, the digital radio that Quebecor launched in 2018. At the start of the fall season, Mario Dumont, Richard Martineau, Sophie Durocher and several other Quebecor headliners found place on the airwaves of 99.5 FM. For Quebecor, this approach is legal, since Leclerc Communication officially remains the owner of the station.
Bell and Cogeco believe, on the contrary, that this “stratagem” contravenes regulations, and calls on the CRTC to immediately ban the broadcast of QUB programs on traditional airwaves. “The agreement between Quebecor and Leclerc is intrinsically contrary to broadcasting laws and regulations and requires firm and imminent action on the part of the Commission,” we can read in the complaint that the two companies sent to the CRTC on Wednesday. and of which The Press got a copy.
Cogeco owns 98.5 FM, which is QUB’s main competitor in Montreal, but also CKOI and Rythme. Bell, for its part, owns the Rouge and Énergie networks. The arrival of Quebecor on the FM band poses, according to these well-established players, a major challenge in terms of “the diversity of voices”.
“The scheme gives Quebecor a position of excessive dominance in the Montreal advertising market for each category of media (television, newspapers, web, radio and billboards) to the detriment of all other broadcasting companies and written media,” he said. also mentioned in the complaint filed with the CRTC.
« Esplaughs of monopoly »
Quebecor and Leclerc Communication reacted Thursday. The two companies reiterated that their agreement is legal, Leclerc Communication remaining the “sole owner of the station”.
According to Quebecor President and CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau, Bell and Cogeco are in a bad position to claim that his company exercises excessive domination in the media market.
“Bell and Cogeco have controlled nearly 95% of the Montreal private French-speaking radio market for many years. […] Their stratagem to harm 99.5 FM and QUB only demonstrates their spirit of monopoly, which is to the detriment of citizens and their right to choose what they want to consume, listen to and watch,” lamented Pierre Karl Péladeau in a written statement.
