CFTM-DT

CFTM Channel 10 began broadcasting on February 19. The “TM” in the calls: Télé-Métropole – owner of the station.

The inaugural evening featured a pre-eminent gala program called “Du Neuf au Dix!”

The official launch was attended by the Archbishop of Montreal, Mgr. Paul-Émile Léger, Mayor Jean Drapeau, and Premier Jean Lesage, who declared that television had “enormous power and thus, enormous responsibilities — we are confident that Télé-Métropole will serve the interests of French Canada.”

Amongst the programs that were broadcast during its first day on the air, one may note “Poivre et Sel”, at 16:30, and “Je me souviens”, at 19:30. CFMT-TV was the biggest private French language television station operating in the Province of Quebec with a signal covering over a 100-kilometre radius around Montreal.

CFTM-TV had an effective radiated power of 325,000 watts video and 160,000 watts audio.

CFTM-TV broadcast its first TV program in colour.

Claude Lapointe was news director.

Joseph Alexandre de Seve died September 3. He would have been 72 on september 14. He was president and founder of Tele-Metropole Corp. Inc., operator of CFTM.

The municipal government of the City of Montreal decided to change the name of the street alongside the Télé-Métropole building to Alexandre-DeSève Street, in memory of the TVA founder.

Paul L’Anglais, commercial manager and head of his own sales rep firm, was named chairman of the board of Tele-Metropole. Roland Giguere, assistant manager, was named president and general manager.

Roland Giguere, president and general manager of Tele-Metropole, announced the appointments of Robert L’Herbier as vice president of programs and production; G.W. Belanger as vice president of sales and promotion; and Robert Trudeau as vice president and general administrator. All of these appointments were at the corporate level.

On December 11, approval was granted for the transfer of 77.6% of the voting shares of Tele-Metropole Corp. from the Estate of the late J.A. DeSève. Executors were appointed by the will of the deceased president: Messrs. Marcel Faribault, Roland Giguere, Leo Lavoie, Lionel Leroux and J. Emile Maheu (testamentory executors and trustees). The executors would control the board of directors. This decision only approved the transfer of control of the company to the current group of executors.

Slogan: 10 CFTM – the most “tuned-in” television station in Canada.

CFTM’s facilities were now fully up-to-date for colour operations.

Local productions totalled 83 1/2 hours every week – 71% of the weekly air time of 118 hours. Starting in the fall, 8 1/2 hours was invested in public affairs programming.

élé-Métropole was listed on the Montreal Stock Exchange.

The construction of the new 11-storey building was completed and housed the offices of the station and Network, as well as three (3) studios, and was located at 1600 de Maisonneuve Blvd. East.

CFTM-TV continued its expansion, as construction of studios “G” and “H” were underway. At this time, Télé-Métropole had 650 employees and was producing some 70 hours of local programming every week.

Gaston W. Belanger moved up from vice president and general manager to the post of president and general manager of Tele-Metropole.

J. Richard Genin was named vice president of sales at CFTM-TV. He was also chair of the TVB at this time.

175 technicians walked off the job after their contract expired and Tele-Metropole turned down union demands for a 12% wage increase.

Claude Veillet was named director of program development for Tele-Metropole Inc.

On March 7, the CRTC approved the application to amend the licence for CHEM-TV Trois-Rivières by authorizing the licensee to broadcast programs originating part-time from CFTM-TV Montreal and CHLT-TV Sherbrooke instead of programs originating part-time from CHLT-TV. In addition, the licensee would continue to broadcast programs originating from its studios in Trois-Rivières.

Tele-Metropole technicians voted 86% in favour of accepting a back to work agreement. The bitter 15 month lockout ended what union president Serge Bouchard called “the longest conflict in the history of television in North America.”

Yolande Lecuyer was a reporter at CFTM.

Power Corp. announced plans to purchase 99.6% of the Class A voting shares and 38% of the Class B shares of Télé-Métropole. T-M owned CFTM-TV Montreal, CJPM-TV Chicoutimi, and had a 33.5% interest in Pathonic Communications (CHLT-TV Sherbrooke and CHEM-TV Trois-Rivieres). All four were part of the TVA network which was anchored by CFTM-TV – Canada’s largest and most profitable French language TV station and a major production centre. Media cross-ownership was seen be an issue for Power when the applications went before the CRTC.

Richard Genin was vice president of sales.

CFTM-TV installed twelve SK-97’s from Hitachi Denshi as part of its studio camera replacement program.

Power Corporation failed in its bid to acquire Télé-Métropole. Cross-ownership and concentration of ownership dominated the March hearing but the commission rejected the proposal because Power did not demonstrate that the deal was clearly in the public interest.

Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée announced plans to acquire Télé-Métropole.

On January 27, the CRTC approved the transfer of effective control of Télé-Métropole Inc. from the Estate of J.A. DeSève, the J.A. DeSève Foundation and Ciné-Monde Inc. to le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée. The Vidéotron proposal included substantial investment in programming and the renovation of existing T-M facilities. In approving the application, the CRTC said Vidéotron’s dynamism, combined with the expertise of Canada’s largest private French-language television station, would ensure continuity while opening new horizons for Canadian French-language productions.

Michel Heroux was named chief executive officer of the TVA Television Network after a short term as interim CEO. He was also elected to the TVA board of directors.

Michel Heroux, general manager of TVA since February, was appointed president of the network, succeeding Gilles Lauzon, who remained chairman of the board.

Vincent Gabriele left CFTM-TV where he had been vice president of programming and production.

Huguette Marcotte was appointed executive vice president and chief operating officer of CFTM-TV. He joined Tele-Metropole from Radio-Canada.

Télé-Métropole Inc. acquired control of Pathonic Network Inc. Pathonic owned or controlled TVA affiliates CFCM-TV Quebec City, CFER-TV Rimouski and CFER-TV-2 Gaspé-Nord, CHLT-TV Sherbrooke, CHEM-TV Trois-Rivières, CIMT-TV Rivière-du-Loup; CBC affiliates CKMI-TV Quebec City (English), CKRT-TV Rivière-du-Loup (French); and CFTF-TV Rivière-du-Loup (Quatre-Saisons affiliate). Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée owned 99.7% of the voting shares and 40.8% of all of the outstanding shares in Télé-Métropole at this time. In addition to CFTM, Télé-Métropole also owned CJPM-TV Chicoutimi and CJPM-TV-1 Chambord. Télé-Métropole was a founding member of the TVA network and at this time owned 20% of the voting rights in the Réseau de Télévision TVA Inc. 

Andre Provencher was appointed programming director and Robert Lauzon was named director of regional and local sales for Tele-Metropole.

Guy Crevier, Tele-Metropole vice-president of news and current affairs was appointed chairman of the board.

Bernard Fabi was named president and general manager of Tele-Metropole’s regional stations.

The corporate name was now Groupe TVA Inc.

Mario Bertrand was named president and CDO of Tele-Metropole Inc. Serge Goudin became chairman of Tele-Metropole and president of Groupe Videotron Ltee, Tele-Metropole’s controlling shareholder.

On August 13, Télé-Métropole Inc. was given approval to acquire 75% of Le Réseau de télévision TVA Inc. from Radio Nord Inc., Télé-Inter Rives Ltée and Télévision de la Baie des Chaleurs Inc. (25% each). This purchase gave Télé-Métropole 100% of the network.

Télé-Métropole vice president of marketing Guy Crevier succeeded Mario Bertrand as president.

On January 23, the CRTC approved the application to amend the licence for CFTM-TV by adding to the licence the following condition of licence: In addition to the 12 minutes of advertising material permitted by subsection 11(1) of the Television Broadcasting Regulations, 1987, the licensee may broadcast more than 12 minutes of advertising material in any clock hour in a broadcast day, in order to broadcast infomercials as defined in Public Notice CRTC 1994-139 and in accordance with the criteria contained in that public notice, as amended.

Groupe Videotron appointed Jean Gariepy as president of its Tele-Metropole subsidiary, succeeding Claude Chagnon.

Claude Chagnon became president and COO of Groupe Videotron and chairman of its subsidiary, Tele-Metropole. He succeeded Serge Gouin, who left the company after five years in the posts. Andre Chagnon continued on as CEO and chairman.

Gaétan Girouard, 33, a household name to more than a million Quebecers, was found dead in his suburban Quebec City home. He was co-host on TVA’s show, J.E.

André Provencher was appointed President of TVA International. He would remain as a programming advisor to the TVA Group’s management team, while François St-Laurent would manage TVA International’s Los Angeles-based production unit.

Quebecor inc. subsidiary Quebecor Média inc. acquired Le Groupe Vidéotron ltée. Because Quebecor would now own two networks – TVA and TQS – the company was told to divest itself of TQS inc. Later in the year, TQS was sold to Cogeco Radio Television Inc. and Bell Globemedia Inc.

On March 15, the CRTC approved the application by TVA Group Inc. for a licence to operate a transitional digital television undertaking in association with CFTM-TV Montréal. The applicant proposed that the station simulcast the current analog programming service of CFTM-TV with the exception of up to 14 hours per week of programming that would not be duplicated on the analog service. The digital undertaking would operate from a tower on the roof of CFTM-TV’s studio on channel 59VU with an average effective radiated power (ERP) of 6,140 watts.

On May 15th, following a hearing that began on April 27th, the CRTC announced a two-year licence renewal, effective September 1st 2009, for the TVA Group stations, including CFTM-TV Montreal, “….to give these broadcasters some flexibility during the current period of economic uncertainty.”

The CRTC approved the change to the ownership of Quebecor Media Inc. through the transfer of the shares held by Capital d’Amérique CDPQ inc. in QMI to CDP Capital d’Amérique Investissement inc., another CDPQ subsidiary. This transaction does not affect the effective control of QMI and of its licensee subsidiaries. QMI owns, through TVA Group Inc. and Videotron Ltd., broadcasting distribution undertakings, television programming undertakings, a pay-per-view undertaking, specialty services and a video-on-demand undertaking.

On July 12, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CFTM-DT until August 31, 2012.

The deadline for the conversion of analog television to digital in mandatory markets was August 31. At 12:01 a.m., September 1, CFTM-TV channel 10 left the air and was replaced by CFTM-DT – also on channel 10 (virtual 10.1).

Jean Neveu died at the age of 70. He was chairman of the board at Quebecor, chairman of TVA Group and a director of Quebecor Media Inc. He joined Quebecor in 1969 as controller and occupied several management positions, including senior vice president.

By Decision 2017-147 dated May 15th, the CRTC granted TVA owners Quebecor Media Inc a renewal of  the broadcasting licences for the various television stations and services that would form the TVA Group for the ensuing licence term, beginning 1 September 2017 and ending 31 August 2022.

Further, the Commission renewed the broadcasting licences for the various television services that would not be part of TVA Group for the next licence term, from 1 September 2017 to 31 August 2022

For the purposes of the licences, the TVA Group would consist of the following:

the TVA network;
– CFCM-DT Québec;
– CFER-DT Rimouski;
– CFTM-DT Montréal;
– CHEM-DT Trois-Rivières;
– CHLT-DT Sherbrooke;
– CJPM-DT Saguenay;
– AddikTV; 
– Moi&cie;
– Yoopa;
– Casa; and
– Prise 2.

– while TVA Sports and LCN would not be part of the Group.

The TVA Employees Union voted 97% in favour of a strike mandate in June. The approximately 830 TVA Montréal employees had been without a collective agreement since December 31, 2016. One of the union’s main concerns was labour outsourcing to other Quebecor subsidiaries. The union represented all TVA employees including journalists, clerks and technicians, with the exception of its sales staff.