Vancouver: Programming developed through CanWest Global Communications will constitute unprecedented competition for CTV Television Network affiliate cfcf-tv Montreal if a joint-venture proposal from CanWest and Tele-Metropole to enter the Quebec market is approved by the crtc.

In a partnership agreement announced July 13, Winnipeg-based CanWest and Tele-Metropole of Montreal report a nearly finalized deal to establish a joint-venture company which would oversee CanWest Global’s entry into the Quebec tv market. The proposal calls for Quebec City station ckmi-tv, a Tele-Metropole owned and operated station currently used as a cbc rebroadcaster, to be converted to the CanWest Global signal.

Jim Sward, president of Toronto-based subsidiary CanWest Global Systems, who is brokering the deal with Tele-Metropole president and ceo Guy Crevier, calls the move a significant step toward CanWest’s goal of becoming a third national television system.

‘It extends our service to an important market. We will have a stronger ability to realize our investment in programming and create more exposure for our advertisers and productions,’ he says.

While very little of CanWest’s production gets aired in Quebec today, the new arrangement means programs such as Destiny Ridge, Madison (now financed by WIC Western International Communications), Ready or Not and Jake and the Kid could have a vastly extended domestic audience by 1997, assuming the application is approved.

Next to the cbc, CanWest is the largest producer or licensee of drama and entertainment programming in Canada, says Sward.

Renee-Claude Menard, Tele-Metropole’s new communications director, says the application will be filed with the crtc ‘within days,’ and a hearing should take place before the end of 1995.

The conversion of ckmi calls for the station’s signal to be extended throughout southern and central Quebec via repeater stations in Sherbrooke and Montreal. Montreal’s 750,000 anglophone extended market is Canada’s third largest ethnic/English market, behind Toronto and Vancouver.

Sward describes Quebec as one of the most underserved English-language markets in Canada, with only cfcf and cbc present. He says CanWest will ‘pump in lots of millions of dollars,’ and boost employment at ckmi from fewer than six to 60.

The proposal also includes a plan for a regional Quebec City/eastern Quebec newscast. ckmi has a current annual operating budget of only $500,000.

CanWest’s new alliance with Tele-Metropole reflects broadcast alignments in Quebec.

Tele-Metropole, majority owner of the 10-station TVA Television Network, competes head-to-head with Television Quatre Saisons, the French-track network owned and operated by CFCF Inc.

Charles Belanger, ceo of CFCF Broadcast Group, declined to comment on the ckmi initiative, saying CFCF Inc. would take a position once application details were known and filed with the crtc.

The introduction of a third English-language network to the Quebec market could conceivably meet with ‘public interest’ opposition. Demographic balance is a topical issue here, but the alliance with Tele-Metropole greatly enhances the bid’s chances.

Three years ago, cash-strapped CFCF Inc. and CanWest Global entered into a refinancing arrangement, which included a proposal to introduce CanWest’s signal into the Quebec market by turning cfcf into a twin-stick ctv/Global operation. That deal fell apart when CFCF Inc. found alternate sources of financing.

However, it is expected that CFCF Inc. will oppose the CanWest/Tele-Metropole bid.

In the Montreal market, cfcf easily outdistances rival cbc station cbmt-tv, but Global’s entry would represent real competition.

Glen O’Farrell, vp regulatory affairs at CanWest Global, and Andre Provencher, vp programming at Tele-Metropole, are also in on the negotiations.

Sward declined to speculate on whether the successful expansion into Quebec would strengthen CanWest’s bid to establish an Alberta beachhead. The crtc denied an application to expand there and recent attempts to buy cfcn-tv in Calgary from Rogers Communications have been rebuffed.

CanWest is trying to secure affiliate arrangements with stations in Alberta and is considering a separate application to the crtc to start another service, says Sward. CanWest also lacks stations in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island.

(with files from leo rice-barker in Montreal.)