With Québec’s 2025-26 television season about to begin, Pierre Karl Péladeau, acting President and CEO of TVA Group, has painted a bleak picture of the state of Québec’s television industry. In an urgent appeal for action to all stakeholders as well as government authorities and the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), he stated:

 

The new program line-up we announced today is the result of the hard work and extraordinary talent of Québec artists and crews, as well as the teams at TVA Group and illico+. We are very proud of it. However, for some years now, we have not been able to discuss our content without mentioning the challenges facing our industry. The situation is a crisis, not just for TVA but for all private broadcasters. And it is affecting not only our television industry but our entire culture. At the same time, paradigm shifts are occurring on several fronts.

 

Cable television subscription levels continue to fall while subscription rates for foreign online streaming services are growing steadily. The advertising revenues of conventional television channels continue to dwindle, decreasing by nearly 40% in Canada since 2011. Web giants—specifically Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google/YouTube, Microsoft and TikTok—now take 92% of online advertising revenue in Canada—money that previously went to traditional media. The consequences for private broadcasters, which rely on these revenues as their main source of financing, have been disastrous. In absolute terms, TVA and its specialty channels have lost $34.9 million in television advertising revenue over the past three years.

 

Despite our constant efforts to rethink, restructure and enhance our commercial offering, private broadcasters have virtually no room to manoeuvre. TVA Group’s channels are the most-watched in Québec. Their combined market share continues to grow and now exceeds 42%. TVA Group and illico+ platforms log significantly more viewing hours than those of other Canadian media groups. How is it possible that a broadcaster that reaches 5.7 million Quebecers per week is in jeopardy?

 

TVA Group has stepped up and made significant efforts to streamline its operations in recent years. But despite all these tough decisions, TVA’s financial position continues to deteriorate. Realistically, TVA will not be able to continue operating in such a precarious environment in the medium term.

 

All governments say culture is important, but when it comes to giving due consideration to our television industry, supporting it and investing in it, we’re getting no sound and no picture—only empty statements and, without real action, further decline.

 

Yet governments are quick to support other industries that are struggling or threatened by foreign markets, such as aerospace—and rightly so. But the film and television industry accounts for more jobs in Canada than aerospace and is an important economic engine. In Québec alone, more than 53,000 artists and technicians were employed in the industry in 2024. TVA Group and illico+ spent $400 million on content that year.

 

To be sure, private broadcasters do not have the resources of the global players or the public broadcaster, but they drive an entire industry. If nothing changes, the majority, if not all, of the content broadcast in Québec could be produced in France, in the United States, or by Radio-Canada.

 

Governments and the CRTC must act without delay to address the serious competitive imbalances that are destabilizing the ecosystem.

 

For example, is it acceptable for the federal government to encourage advertising spending on U.S. and Chinese digital platforms through tax incentives? How can the CRTC maintain such a heavy regulatory, financial and administrative burden on private broadcasters while the web giants, which contribute minimally to Canada’s broadcasting ecosystem, operate with virtually no regulatory constraints? Is it normal that a public broadcaster that receives more than a billion dollars annually in government funding—which can be readily increased if it encounters any adversity—should engage in aggressive commercial competition with the private sector and chase advertising revenues? Is it fair that Canada’s public broadcasters, which are already heavily funded by governments, should swallow up half of the Canada Media Fund’s support for television broadcasters, while private broadcasters are languishing? Isn’t this a clear case of double dipping? Finally, at a time when real, rigorous, quality news coverage is fighting the onslaught of fake news, how can governments still refuse to extend the journalism labour tax credit to television journalism?

 

Over the years, we have held many industry meetings and many meetings with CRTC chairpersons, Canadian Heritage ministers and Quebec culture ministers. It is dismaying that there has been no movement, nothing has changed. We feel as if we were helplessly watching the death foretold of television. How much longer will governments and the CRTC allow the industry to teeter and decline? Will they allow it to disappear entirely?

 

We must finally act together and bring in measures to adequately support our industry, so that we can continue offering Quebecers the quality content they value.

 

Measures requested of government authorities and the CRTC

 

1. Reform the tax treatment of advertising expenditures: Eliminate the tax deduction for advertising purchases from foreign companies and introduce an additional tax incentive to encourage advertising purchases from Québec and Canadian media.

2. Review CBC/Radio-Canada’s mandate: Refocus the public broadcaster’s mandate and eliminate all advertising from its platforms, which would release some $270 million in potential advertising revenue for Canadian private stations.

3. Reform the Canada Media Fund (CMF): Exclude public broadcasters from CMF funding, given that public television is already heavily funded by the government while private broadcasters are struggling to survive.

4. Make television journalism eligible for the journalism labour tax credit: Extend journalism labour assistance programs to include television journalism.

5. Regulatory relief and fairness: Correct regulatory inequities between foreign digital companies and domestic broadcasters. Among other things, significantly reduce the regulatory, financial and administrative burden on domestic broadcasters.

 

Recap of TVA Group’s efforts to address the crisis since 2023

 

• Slashed operating costs.

• Conducted an ongoing review of its structure resulting in the elimination of nearly 700 positions in its broadcasting segment.

• Optimized its real estate assets, which involved leaving TVA’s and Télé-Métropole’s historical home at 1600 De Maisonneuve Blvd.

• Closed TVA Group’s in-house production division.

• Reduced budgets for original productions in line with the decrease in revenue.

• Reviewed the program schedule, resulting in non-renewal of some popular programs.