MONTREAL — Quebec producers are lamenting the possible demise of TQS, the black sheep of the province’s three networks that draws audiences to its homegrown programming that English-Canadian TV makers would die for.

This week, the French-language network — which attracts, on average, 12% of Quebec viewers, compared to Radio-Canada’s 15% — sought protection from its creditors while its owners discuss plans for its survival over the next 30 days.

‘It will be a real loss for independent producers,’ says Céline Pelletier, spokeperson for the producers group, the APFTQ. ‘In Quebec, producers have five clients: TVA, Radio-Canada, TQS, Télé-Québec and Astral. If one client out of five disappears, it’s not negligible.’

‘TQS responds to a specific clientele,’ says Pelletier. ‘Its programming is oriented towards a different and younger audience.’

Télévision Quatre-Saisons was founded in 1986, and is so named because it promised to provide fresh programming all year with no repeats. The network’s goal was to liven up Quebec TV by providing an alternative to market dominators SRC and TVA.

Controversial TV writer and former CBC chair Guy Fournier was TQS’s first program director. When he started his new job he deemed most of the Quebec TV industry ‘lazy and lousy.’

Although the network’s experimental mandate provided an important training ground for Quebec comedy writers and big-name stars such as Julie Snyder and Guy A. Lepage, TQS has often been criticized for being low-brow and distasteful; one of its best-known series is late-night soft-core porn show Bleu nuit. Its reality show Loft Story has also drawn a number of official complaints.

There is much speculation as to why TQS, which is owned by Cogeco and CTVglobemedia, sought bankruptcy protection. Some observers blame declining audiences, although Loft Story regularly pulls in nearly one million viewers, and its recent series Elvis Gratton drew over 800,000 earlier this year.

The network blames increased production costs and declining advertising revenue. With debts of almost $70 million and an anticipated outlay of as much as $40 million to comply with new high-definition broadcasting rules set by the CRTC, TQS faces a rocky road ahead.

The network has also been trying to convert into a specialty channel so it could charge a subscriber fee, but its request was quashed by the CRTC.

TQS has also singled out one of its main competitors, Radio-Canada, as one of the reasons for its dire financial situation. TQS accuses SRC of acting ‘like a commercial player rather than a publicly-owned television broadcaster,’ and blasted the pubcaster for putting an end to its deal to rent TQS broadcast facilities in three cities starting in 2009.