TVA Sports is being shaken by an unprecedented storm.
The broadcast of the Montreal Canadiens match across the entire TVA network last Saturday was supposed to be a lifeline, a strategic masterstroke to restore the channel’s image.
But the figures fell like a cold shower, revealed bluntly by journalist Maxime Truman.
The ratings for last Saturday’s game between the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs, broadcast simultaneously on TVA and TVA Sports, are a real disaster for Pierre-Karl Péladeau and his media empire.
Despite the effort to broadcast the match unencrypted throughout the province, the audience peaked at an average of 570,000 viewers per minute, or 282,000 on TVA Sports and 286,000 on TVA.
Although this figure exceeds the usual average of 400,000 meager spectators, it falls far short of meeting the expectations set for this strategic evening.
Maxime Truman, a journalist well informed about audience trends, was quick to reveal these painful figures.
While Péladeau hoped to attract a massive audience, symbolizing a renewed interest in hockey on TVA, the reality is quite different: the match quickly lost its audience from the first minutes.
Imagine the magnitude of the failure. Pierre-Karl Péladeau’s salary (practically $5 million) is today practically ten times higher than the average audience for hockey broadcast on the entire TVA network.
A figure which illustrates, in a chilling manner, the abysmal gap between expectations and reality.
Against all odds, and despite a financial disaster of several hundred million dollars, Péladeau refuses to give up.
His meeting with Geoff Molson, owner of the Canadiens, and Louis-Philippe Neveu, general manager of TVA Sports, in his dressing room during an Alouettes game, clearly showed his intention: he wants to obtain the broadcast rights of the Canadiens again. of Montreal and the NHL.
For him, closing TVA Sports would be admitting his failure, and this pride of a business warrior cannot tolerate such abandonment.
Some describe this persistence as reckless, even irresponsible, seeing it as the stubborn refusal of a man who, guided by pride, does not know when to stop.
This perseverance borders on stubbornness, especially in a context where Quebecor is increasing waves of layoffs to compensate for the financial losses of TVA Sports and other sectors.
Every year, hundreds of employees lose their jobs, sacrifices pile up, and the gap with managers, who continue to grant themselves exorbitant salaries, becomes a hot topic of controversy.
While senior executives share millions, employees must suffer the consequences of bad strategic choices.
In 2023, Quebecor’s five highest executives shared $13.8 million, an increase of 115% compared to the previous year.
For his part, Pierre-Karl Péladeau earned $4.9 million, an increase of 57%, while hundreds of Quebecor employees lost their livelihoods.
This amount includes his base salary, bonuses and a large share in stock options, showing that he benefits from the general profitability of Quebecor despite the continued losses of TVA Sports.
And while TVA Sports struggles to attract and, above all, maintain an audience, Quebecor executives continue to award themselves astronomical compensation.
In 2023, Quebecor’s five highest executives shared a total of $13.8 million, an increase of 115% compared to the previous year.
This figure is all the more striking as it coincides with a continued decline in television ratings and growing financial difficulties for the sports channel.
In this distribution, Jean B. Péladeau, vice-president of operational convergence at Quebecor Media, saw his remuneration reach $1.9 million, while Érik Péladeau, another influential member of the family and director of the company , received $920,700, including $761,000 in the form of a retirement pension for his 32 years of service with the company.
These amounts testify to the prosperity of the managers and especially the Péladeau family, in stark contrast to the sacrifices imposed on employees and the disappointing performances of TVA Sports.
The unequal distribution of resources, accentuated by audience failures, leaves a bitter taste for the Quebec public who, in the end, were not there despite the exceptional broadcast of the match on TVA.
The gap between the enormous salaries of managers and the financial difficulties of TVA Sports makes this situation even more unbearable for many observers, who see in Péladeau a stubborn leader, ready to sacrifice Quebecor’s resources for a project that no longer seems viable. .
In the corridors of TVA Sports, tensions are obvious. Massive layoffs, budget cuts and uncertainty about the chain’s future are taking a toll on morale.
Many employees feel sacrificed in the name of the ambitions of a man who refuses to let go. The irony is cruel: employees pay with their stability, while the Péladeau family sees its income increase, consolidating an empire whose foundations seem to be faltering.
The disconnect between workers’ sacrifices and executives’ exorbitant profits is as shocking as it is symptomatic of an economic model on the brink of collapse.
However, Péladeau will stop at nothing. He is ready to do anything to keep TVA Sports alive, even at the cost of colossal losses.
In a rapidly changing media world, with the rise of streaming platforms and competition from giants like Amazon, his desire to defend TVA Sports’ place in the media scene is as much an act of faith as a foolish bet.
He knows that the arrival of Amazon in the race for broadcasting rights could radically change the rules of the game, and he seems ready to outbid, to challenge even the most powerful to keep TVA Sports at the head of the queue.
Criticisms come from all sides. Why persist in a project that is bleeding financially, when hundreds of families see their future compromised?
For some, Péladeau embodies the image of a captain ready to go down with his ship, even if it means taking with him those who trusted him.
Others see it as the tenacity of a man determined not to let his media empire founder, even if it means defying the evidence.
The future of TVA Sports seems to hang by a thread, and each decision of Péladeau is scrutinized, questioned, doubted.
If TVA Sports continues to widen its deficit, the entire Quebecor group could fall into turmoil.
At the heart of this struggle, Péladeau showed himself to be inflexible. His meeting with Molson demonstrates his desire to keep TVA Sports in the race for NHL broadcasting rights, refusing to cede ground to RDS or Amazon.
For him, giving up these rights would amount to admitting a defeat that he is not prepared to concede. This obstinacy may seem noble, even heroic to some, but it risks throwing Quebecor into an even deeper crisis if it fails.
Because in the end, it is the employees who will bear the burden of this excessive ambition.
The disconnect between the sacrifices of workers and the rewards of management is all the more shocking as the future of TVA Sports is increasingly uncertain.
With declining audiences, financial hemorrhaging and disillusioned employees, Péladeau faces a titanic challenge.
His perseverance is admirable, but it could well be the last stone of this sinking building.
He won’t lose sleep over it. After all, it is the millions, even billions, in his pockets that make him sleep well.
The 300 million loss of TVA Sports in 2026 is small beer.
Cheap beer. And it’s certainly not Molson…
