CFER-TV

TVA affiliate CFER-TV channel 11 signed on the air June 4. The “FER” in the calls: From the East to Rimouski.

On July 12, CFER-TV was granted an increase in effective radiated power for the main Rimouski transmitter…130,000 watts to 157,000 watts and a decrease in ERP for the Sept-Ile (CFER-TV-1) transmitter…3,800 watts to 2,158 watts. 

On August 7, approval was granted for the transfer of indirect control of (A) Enterprises Tele-Capitale Ltee (CKLM, CFCM-TV, CKMI-TV, CFER-TV and CFER-TV-1); (B) CHRC Ltee (CHRC-AM and CHOI-FM) – through the transfer of not less than 50.5% of Class B common voting shares of Tele-Capitale Ltee (the parent company) from Claude Pratte and one or both of the other major shareholders, Jevlam Inc. (J. A. Pouliot) and Baribeau & Fils Inc. (Baribeau family) to Corporation de Gestion La Verendrye. This was conditional on Corporation de Gestion LaVerendrye doing a public offering within 21 days to acquire Class A common non-voting shares of Tele-Capitale. J. Conrad Lavigne was among the new directors of Tele-Capitale. The company undertook to make the following improvements at CFER-TV: a mobile van for the Matane area, with rebroadcaster to be established in the next year, production studio for Baie-Comeau/Hauterive area to be built within two years. 

Enterprises Tele-Capitale Ltee applied for a rebroadcaster of CFER-TV-1 Sept-Iles, at Ste-Anne-des-Monts. It would operate on channel 5 with an effective radiated power of 23,000 watts. It would serve communities along the south shore of the St. Lawrence from Matane to Grande-Vallee. The antenna would be sited across the river at Mont-Trouble. CFER was to apply in the near future for a transmitter at Grande-Vallee. The station would provide a mobile unit to cover activities in the Gaspe region. 

Tele-Capital Ltd. was sold by Corporation de Gestion La Vérendrye to CHEM-TV Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pathonic Communications Inc. CHEM-TV Inc. then amalgamated with Tele-Capital Ltd. The amalgamated company became Tele-Capital Inc. (a subsidiary of Pathonic). 

Télé-Capitale Inc. was granted approval to operate a French language television network (Réseau Pathonic) consisting of CFCM-TV, CFER-TV Rimouski, CFER-TV-2 Gaspé-Nord, CHLT-TV Sherbrooke, CHEM-TV Trois-Rivières and CIMT-TV Rivière-du-Loup and its rebroadcasting stations. These stations also operated as affiliates of the TVA network. 

On January 27, the CRTC approved the transfer 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 corporate name was now Groupe TVA Inc. 

By this time, CFER was broadcasting with 325,000 watts video and 32,500 watts audio, and was owned by Tele-Capitale Inc. (Pathonic Communications). 

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.

The corporate name was now TM Multi-Régions Inc. 

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 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 CFER-TV Rimouski, “….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 CFER-TV and its transmitters until August 31, 2012. 

On April 26, the CRTC renewed the broadcasting licences for the national, French-language television network TVA and the conventional television stations associated with that network, to August 31, 2015. In its application, QMI proposed to maintain the current level of five hours per week of local programming broadcast by CHEM-DT Trois-Rivières, CFER-DT Rimouski, CHLT-DT Sherbrooke and CJPM Saguenay, and their respective transmitters. In addition, QMI declared that the licensee intended to maintain the current broadcast level of 18 hours of local programming per week for CFCM-DT Québec, while also requesting increased flexibility to be able to broadcast programs produced locally by CFCM-DT on the network. To that end, QMI proposed the deletion of the requirement that nine hours of local programming broadcast by CFCM-DT focus exclusively on the local Québec market. The Commission considered that QMI’s proposal to broadcast at least 5 hours and 30 minutes of locally produced news, including two newscasts on weekends, was commendable and would contribute significantly to the reflection of the Québec market. In response to concerns expressed by interveners from this community regarding the loss of local flavour in CFCM-DT programming and news, the Commission would continue to require that, of the 18 hours of local programming per broadcast week, 9 hours must focus specifically on the Québec region, including the 5 hours and 30 minutes of local newscasts. However, the Commission considered it unnecessary that the remaining 3 hours and 30 minutes be broadcast exclusively in the local Québec market and considered that it may be broadcast on the TVA network. In addition, if the newscasts were rebroadcast in full, the Commission required that the licensee not count these rebroadcasts when calculating the number of broadcast hours set out in the conditions of licence for each station.