Quebecor Media moved a step closer to morphing its varied media assets into one multiplatform, multimedia brand with the launch Wednesday of domestic webcaster Canoe.TV.

Quebecor boss Pierre Karl Péladeau unveiled the plans at the nextMEDIA conference in Toronto, noting that Quebecor Media has a range of TV and print assets, as well as its web portal, Canoe.ca. Launching Canoe.TV aims to combine them into dedicated English- and French-language web offerings, available free of charge and with mostly Canadian content.

‘Canoe.TV positions our Canoe.ca portal and Quebecor Media at the leading edge of the rapidly growing online video phenomenon that is being driven by strong consumer demand,’ said Péladeau.

Lifestyle and sports content is set to dominate Canoe.TV via content deals with CBC, the Just For Laughs comedy festival, House and Home and The Fight Network.

Canoe.TV will stream a range of content from bite-sized clips and teasers to long-form video episodes.

Péladeau painted a picture of print journalists at his Sun newspapers picking up a video camera to produce local and national content for newspaper websites, which will be transferable to Canoe.TV.

Similarly, content from Quebecor’s TVA network — including simulcasts of live news broadcasts — and the Sun TV station in Toronto will stream on the upstart webcaster. In addition, Canoe.TV will aggregate content from international broadcasters through five dedicated channels from Toronto-based JumpTV.

Sun TV fare set for Canoe.TV includes the Grill Room sports opinion show, Sunshine Girl TV and the Inside Jam entertainment series.

The webcaster will also feature original content, with an early lineup that includes shows like Outrageous Sports, StreetSeen, Wallpaper, Pimp Me Tonight and Naughty or Nice. ‘No, it’s not a sex show — it’s about homes,’ Péladeau told the crowd.

To monetize Canoe.TV, Quebecor Media will share online advertising revenue with content partners. Péladeau said Canoe.TV will also act as a lead-in to primetime fare on his traditional over-the-air and cable channels.

He said the most popular online timeslot for Internet surfers is from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. weekdays. ‘This online viewing is a sort of head start on reaching audiences before they shift to the primetime television window from 8 to 11,’ Péladeau argued.

The Quebecor boss also couldn’t resist a swipe at the Canadian Television Fund, with which he fought a high-profile tussle earlier this year before the CRTC and Ottawa.

‘We are convinced that Canoe.TV can also become a showcase for great Canadian content. Frankly, it would be difficult to do worse than the track record of the current Canadian Television Fund,’ Péladeau said.

After insisting the CTF hands out subsidies for shows that ‘in general, nobody watches,’ Péladeau said Canoe.TV was an example of Canadian content he was prepared to back as he proposed to double the funds Quebecor Media commits to homegrown content.