TQS

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TQS

Type	Broadcast television network
Country	Canada
Availability	Quebec (available in parts of New Brunswick and eastern & northern Ontario via cable or antenna)
Slogan	Le mouton noir de la télé (The Black Sheep of Television)
Owner	TQS Inc. (Cogeco 60% CTVglobemedia 40%) sale to Remstar pending
Launch date	September 7, 1986
Website www.tqs.ca

TQS is a Canadian French language privately owned television network based in Quebec. It is owned by TQS Inc., a joint venture of Cogeco and CTVglobemedia, although a takeover offer by Remstar Corporation is currently awaiting regulatory approval. Remstar has already assumed management of TQS on an interim basis.^[1]

[edit] History

The history of TQS goes back to 1968, when the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) first expressed interest in the establishment of a third French language commercial television service in the province of Quebec along with the existing Radio-Canada and TVA, although the CRTC did not call on applications for licences.

In 1972, the CRTC said it was prepared to receive licence applications in order to authorize a third commercial television service in Quebec, although it was not until 1974 when the CRTC granted licences to Télé Inter-Cité Québec Ltée to operate TV stations in Montreal and in Quebec City, however nothing came of this project.

On November 15, 1984, the CRTC launched another call for applications, and in 1985 the CRTC held public hearings in Montreal to examine competing applications from partners Cogeco Inc. (60.3%) and Moffat Communications (39.7%), and another application by Réseau de télévision Quatre-Saisons Inc. Both applications applied to launch television stations in both Montreal and Quebec City. On September 6 of that year, the CRTC approved the application of the Réseau de télévision Quatre-Saisons inc. (TQS). TQS was authorized to operate a French language TV station in Montreal with an effective radiated power of 566,000 watts on Channel 35, but it was denied the application to operate a TV station in Quebec City.

The network was launched in 1986 as Télévision Quatre Saisons (Four Seasons Television) under the ownership of the Pouliot family, who then owned Montreal's CTV affiliate, CFCF-TV, and radio stations CFCF-AM (now CINW) and CFQR-FM. However, the network quickly ran into financial problems; at one point, the revenues from CFCF-TV were all that were keeping the network afloat. However, the network was known for advertising in English on its then-sister radio stations.

In 1995, the Pouliots sold TQS to Quebec cable company Vidéotron, who already owned TVA, Quebec's other private commercial network. Due to monopoly ownership concerns, Vidéotron immediately turned around and sold TQS to Quebecor, a newspaper publisher.

Quebecor acquired Vidéotron itself in 2001, and put TQS back on the market. Later in 2001, TQS was bought by a joint venture of CTVglobemedia (then known as Bell Globemedia) and Cogeco, another cable company. Cogeco owns 60% of the venture and handles most of the operations, while CTVglobemedia owns 40%. The acquisition, in a sense, reunited it with CFCF, which had been bought by CTV a year earlier.

Since 1998, the network has branded itself as le mouton noir de la télé, or "the black sheep of television". It has long been a distant third in the ratings to TVA and Radio-Canada, in part because most of its affiliates are on UHF. However, it has produced a number of major hit series in Quebec.

Unlike TVA, TQS does not have mandatory cable carriage rights outside of Quebec, but may be offered at a cable company's discretion if there is a sufficient local market for French language television programming. Consequently the network is not widely available outside of Quebec, although some communities in northern and eastern Ontario and in New Brunswick receive TQS affiliates on cable. The affiliate in Gatineau is part of the Ottawa market, and is available in nearly all of eastern Ontario on cable, while most of Northern Ontario receives the affiliates from either Gatineau or Val-d'Or. The network affiliate in Rivière-du-Loup also has a rebroadcaster in Edmundston, New Brunswick, the network's only over-the-air transmitter outside of Quebec.

The network is known to many English Canadian viewers for Bleu Nuit, a showcase of softcore pornography broadcast late Saturday nights, similar to the old Baby Blue films that once aired on Toronto's Citytv. In fact, TQS was once considered the French counterpart of Citytv.

In early 2005, TQS was part of the consortium that won the Canadian broadcast rights to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, and the 2012 Summer Olympics. This was considered a serious coup, as the rival CBC Television had previously won Olympic broadcast rights from the 1996 Summer Olympics through to the 2008 Summer Olympics. TQS will be the primary French broadcaster, while CTV will be the primary English broadcaster; TSN, RDS and Rogers Sportsnet will provide supplementary coverage.

The current TQS logo, which uses the lowercase form "tqs", was adopted in fall 2006. While some network publicity materials now use the lowercase form in text, the uppercase form also remains common.

In late 2007, TQS launched an HD simulcast of their Montreal affiliate, CFJP called TQS HD.

[edit] Bankruptcy protection

On December 18, 2007, TQS filed for protection from its creditors in a bankruptcy-court filing. At this point the station was given 30 days in which to reorganize and revamp itself, with the goal of finding a viable solution to pay off its creditors. On January 16, 2008, a judge extended the grace period for an additional 45 days.

Montreal newspaper La Presse reported on January 15 that Rogers Communications and RNC Media were each interested in acquiring some individual stations within the network, although RNC Media later denied the report and Rogers declined to comment.^[2] On February 25, 2008, the network confirmed that it had received four purchase bids, although it did not disclose the identities of the bidders.^[3]

[edit] Remstar takeover

It was announced on March 10, 2008, that the Quebec Supreme Court approved the sale of TQS to Remstar Corporation, a Montreal-based television and film producer and distributor.^[4] Creditors, who were owed more than $33 million, voted to accept the Remstar proposal in May.^[5] The deal is still subject to CRTC approval.^[6]

Remstar announced on April 23, 2008 that 270 jobs would be cut at TQS, while the information services division will be abolished entirely — thus eliminating all newscasts from the network starting in September 2008. ^[7]

[edit] Logos

TQS Logo Gallery

TQS' logo used from 1986-1993.	TQS' 1993-1998 logo.	TQS' logo from 1997 with new network slogan, "Allumée depuis 10 ans" (Lit-up for 10 years)
TQS' alternate logo with an actual Black Sheep, from 1998.	Alternate logo using the "Black Sheep" logo.	Previous logo.
Current logo; introduced in late 2006.	TQS HD logo.

[edit] Slogans

• 1987-1989: On grandit ensemble! (We grow together!)
• 1995-1997: Allumée! (Turned on!)
• 1997-Present: Le mouton noir de la télé (The black sheep of television)
• 2007: Parce que vous êtes... différent! (Because you are... different!) — ("Le mouton noir de la télé" is also used)

[edit] Programming

Further information: List of programs broadcast by TQS

[edit] TQS stations

[edit] Owned and operated

These stations are owned and operated by TQS, i.e., they are co-owned by Cogeco and CTVglobemedia:

• CFJP - Montreal
• CFAP - Quebec City
• CFKS - Sherbrooke
• CFKM - Trois-Rivières
• CFRS - Saguenay

[edit] Regional affiliates

• CFGS - Gatineau
• CFVS - Val-d'Or
• CFTF - Rivière-du-Loup

[edit] See also

• List of Quebec television channels
• List of Quebec television series
• Television of Quebec
• Culture of Quebec

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official TQS website (French)
• Public information on TQS Insolvency made available by accounting firm RSM Richter