Montreal: With a new logo, colors and station id, Tele-Quebec officially took over from pubcaster Radio-Quebec Monday, Aug. 19.

Quebec Culture and Communications Minister Louise Beaudoin says Tele-Quebec will no longer compete as a conventional service, with ratings in the 2% to 4% range, but will have a tightly defined educational and cultural mandate with five primary program segments: information, culture, training, youth, science, and service and social affairs.

Regional programming will be prominent on the relaunched service. A new evening information show hosted by Anne-Marie Dussault anchors the evening schedule.

Talk show host Jean Luc Mongrain, formerly of the TVA Network, is now at t-q.

About two-thirds of the network’s ’96/97 sked originates with indie producers, although former Radio-Quebec programs transferred to the private sector are ineligible for Cable Production Fund moneys.

Radio-Quebec laid off 300 employees this year, half its staff, and had its Quebec appropriation frozen at $53 million a year for three years.

Beaudoin says despite the freeze ‘it’s still a lot of money,’ adding that at least t-q’s future financing is known, unlike pubcasters in other jurisdictions. LRB