The future of private broadcaster TVA Group is at stake - Company forced to cut more jobs in its television division Français

Cision Canada

21-05-2025

MONTRÉAL, May 21, 2025 /CNW/ - Pierre Karl Péladeau, acting President and CEO of TVA Group, is sounding the alarm over the future of TVA and Québec's television industry. He issues the following statement:
''TVA Group, like other private broadcasters, is operating in a steadily deteriorating business environment and continues to absorb substantial financial losses while competing on an uneven playing field.
In this alarming situation, TVA Group is forced to cut some 30 jobs, mainly in its television division. These are teams that have already undergone major restructuring in recent years, including two overhauls since 2023 that resulted in the elimination of more than 650 jobs, half of TVA Group's workforce. The financial picture has also forced us to slash budgets for original Québec productions by independent producers belonging to the Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) and drop popular programs from our schedule.
Despite these rationalization efforts, the situation continues to worsen. TVA Group's financial results for the first quarter of 2025, released on May 5, 2025, confirmed the trend once again. TVA Group's total net loss over the past three years now stands at $76.1 million. The financial burden has been borne entirely by its shareholders, who have seen the value of their shares collapse.
This despite the fact that TVA Group's channels and programs consistently top the Québec ratings. How is it possible that a broadcaster that reached 80% of the population every week during the winter 2025 season is in financial peril? And yet, that is the reality. Although our market share is growing, advertising and subscription revenues continue to fall. Over the past three years, TVA Group's television advertising revenues have declined by $27.7 million. At the same time, its subscriber base and subscription revenues have dwindled as audiences and their subscription fees migrate to U.S. platforms and social networks, which are also capturing more advertising revenues than ever.
The challenges are great and they're not going away. They are undermining all our efforts to turn the situation around. Government authorities need to understand that the precarious state of the television industry will only worsen in the future, resulting in significantly lower tax contributions by industry players and job losses, whereas the economic footprint of the foreign players is minimal.
As we all know, television broadcasters have been contending with the rise of new players for years, namely U.S.-based video streaming services. For too long, the CRTC and public authorities have unthinkingly given them free rein, without acknowledging their real impact on our broadcasting system. Meanwhile, Canadian broadcasters must meet licencing requirements and unnecessarily restrictive regulatory burdens in order to operate. The situation is egregious. The unlicensed American online services have been causing the initially slow and now quickening downfall of Canadian broadcasting. Operating outside regulatory constraints, they are destabilising Canada's broadcasting ecosystem, accentuating changes in viewing habits and contributing to the erosion of viewing and advertising revenues on traditional platforms. How can TVA survive in such an unfavourable, over-regulated and over-taxed environment, when the Web giants can operate with virtually no restrictions?
The government must act to protect Canadian jobs and businesses.
At a time when television is struggling to survive but remains the public's leading source of news, it also defies comprehension that governments are still limiting the journalism labour tax credit to print media and refusing to extend it to television journalism. We have to ask the question: why are governments dividing journalists doing essentially the same work for our democracy into two classes? The artificial line between print and broadcast media drawn by this exclusion is destined to disappear with digitization. There is no reason not to act now.
In addition, the public broadcaster's over-the-top commercialism poses an additional challenge for private broadcasters such as TVA, which rely solely on advertising revenue. For too long, CBC / Radio-Canada has been in direct and unfair competition with private broadcasters, vying for advertising revenue, ratings and content acquisition. And even as the public broadcaster flouts its mandate and its social mission, it receives lavish, constantly increasing public funding—which does not seem to satisfy its management, which is asking for more while charging viewers fees for online services such as Tou.Tv Extra and unabashedly running commercials during mainstream programming. A strong, home-grown broadcasting system requires complementarity between the public and private sectors. It is imperative that the public broadcaster's mandate and business practices be refocused and all advertising removed from its platforms. As he begins his second term as Minister of Canadian Heritage, Steven Guilbeault should move swiftly to implement all the recommendations made by his predecessor in February 2025, which echo those of the 2020 Yale Report.
Bell is also persisting in its anti-competitive behaviour by refusing to pay the fair market price for TVA Group's specialty channels, particularly TVA Sports, as all other BDUs in Québec and Canada have been doing for years. The CRTC must intervene quickly to make Bell pay fair compensation for TVA Sports at last.
In addition to all these issues, the recent reduction in funding from the Canada Media Fund (CMF) has meant a net loss of $5 million for TVA alone for 2025-26, or almost a third of its funding.
For more than a decade, TVA Group and others have been making the case that these problems are crippling the industry, but no significant reforms have been implemented to enable our television industry to cope with the current upheavals. Effectively addressing these issues could be a game-changer for private broadcasters, which are essential to our cultural sovereignty and to maintaining a strong, home-grown broadcasting system.
Do we want a media landscape occupied solely by the public broadcaster and American platforms such as META, which are known to tolerate fake news?
TVA's fragility has implications beyond the company itself: its precarious condition endangers the entire chain of cultural creation, production and dissemination in Québec. It is crucial that government, regulatory authorities and all industry stakeholders understand the repercussions and finally adopt a long-term vision so that together we can find lasting solutions, before it is too late.
The last few years have been sorely trying for the cultural sector. Can we afford to lose thousands of jobs—including those of artists, control room technicians, camerapeople, lighting technicians, sound engineers, editors, writers, directors, musicians, presenters, journalists, set designers, stylists, make-up artists, hairdressers and so many other professionals who work on TVA productions?
Private broadcasters find themselves at a critical juncture. Throughout its 60-year history, TVA has always broadcast programs and experiences that bring Quebecers together. It is a powerful driver of our society's cultural vitality and democratic expression. If our television were to disappear, what would be left of our common culture, our shared stories and our identity? What would remain of the economic footprint of our businesses and their philanthropic contributions? We cannot afford to let this happen.''