Montreal: Reseau tva station cftm-tv continued its ratings mastery among the franco audience with a 32-share of primetime viewing in this winter/spring’s Sondages bbm sweeps. tva also topped full-day viewing with a 33 share.

The latest bbm book reports on tv viewing for 3.3 million francophones in the extended Montreal market (2+) during three weeks in February and March.

tva edged out main competitor Radio-Canada by four points, although src (CBFT-TV) says it is satisfied with its sweeps performance, especially in view of a disruptive strike in February. CBFT held on to a 28 share of the franco market in primetime, and a 20 share throughout the day.

Television Quatre Saisons’ CFPJ-TV edged up to a 12 share in primetime followed by Tele-Quebec (CIVM-TV), which held on to a 2 share.

English-Canadian and u.s. border stations grabbed an 11 share of the French audience, cfcf-tv at the top with a 3 share, while all specialty channels, led by Teletoon (en francais) and children’s channel Canal Famille, combined for an 11 share in primetime, up two share points over winter/spring ’99.

Programming highlights include tva’s primetime lead six evenings out of seven, host Jean-Luc Mongrain’s positive influence on tqs’ suppertime ratings, src’s less than sterling results on Sunday nights and Tele-Quebec’s strong performance on Fridays with Daniel Pinard’s cooking show, the rejuvenated studio debate show Droit de Parole and the hip society mag Franc-Tireurs.

tva had 12 of the top 20 shows during the sweep. src had eight.

Top shows this season include the forensic drama Fortier (Aetios), the sitcom Un gars une fille (Avanti Cine Video), Quebec’s top-rated teleroman 4 et demi (src), reruns of Avanti’s zany sitcom La Petite Vie, tva’s people’s choice awards program Gala Metrostar, the teleroman Le retour (JPL Productions), game show La Fureur (Productions Guy Cloutier), the dramatic miniseries Chartrand et Simone (Productions Videofilm) and the second leg of the historical drama L’Ombre de l’Epervier (Verseau International).