Everything about Tqs totally explained
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 shareholder and regulatory approval. Remstar has already assumed management of TQS on an interim basis.
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 didn't 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 wasn't 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 doesn't have mandatory cable carriage rights outside of Quebec, but may be offered at a cable company's discretion if there's a sufficient local market for French language television programming. Consequently the network isn't 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.
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. On
February 25,
2008, the network confirmed that it had received four purchase bids, although it didn't disclose the identities of the bidders.
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. Creditors, who are owed more than $65 million, are expected to vote on the Remstar proposal in April.
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.
Logos
Image:TQS1980s-alt.gif|TQS' logo used from 1986-1993.
Image:TQS logo 1993.svg|TQS' 1993-1998 logo.
Image:TQS_Allume.jpg|TQS' logo from 1997 with new network slogan, "Allumée depuis 10 ans" (Lit-up for 10 years)
Image:TQSBlackSheeplogo.gif|TQS' alternate logo with an actual Black Sheep, from 1998.
Image:Partenaires tqs.jpg|Alternate logo using the "Black Sheep" logo.
Image:TQS_LOGO.gif|Previous logo.
Image:TQS logo.svg|Current logo; introduced in late 2006.
Image:TQS_HD.gif|TQS HD logo.
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)
Programming
TQS stations
Owned and operated
These stations are
owned and operated by TQS, for example, they're co-owned by Cogeco and CTVglobemedia:
CFJP - Montreal
CFAP - Quebec City
CFKS - Sherbrooke
CFKM - Trois-Rivières
CFRS - Saguenay
Regional affiliates
CFGS - Gatineau
CFVS - Val-d'Or
CFTF - Rivière-du-LoupFurther Information
Get more info on 'Tqs'.
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