Bell Media acquires Quecbec’s V Interaction
Today, the CRTC authorized Bell Canada’s application to acquire V Interactions and imposed conditions of licence to guarantee adequate levels of investments in local programming and original French-language Canadian programming.
V Interactions is the licensee of a French-language television network named “V” and of five French-language local television stations in the Montreal, Quebec City, Saguenay, Sherbrooke and Trois-Rivières markets.
The V Stations will have to broadcast 5 hours of local programming per week for the Montreal and Quebec City markets in 2020-2021. The number of hours will increase to 8 hours and 30 minutes in 2021-2022. The stations will also have to broadcast at least 5 hours of local programming per week for the Trois-Rivières, Saguenay and Sherbrooke markets.
The Bell Media Group will also be required to spend at least 40% of the previous year’s revenues in Canadian programming and at least 18% of the previous year’s revenues in programs of national interest. These new thresholds represent an increase since Bell Media’s current threshold for Canadian programming expenditures is 35%, while the V stations’ current threshold for programs of national interest is 10%.
The CRTC is also directing Bell to invest more than $3 million, which will be allocated to the Canada Media Fund and Bell Fund in equal annual payments over seven consecutive broadcast years.
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