CHEM-DT

CHEM-TV was authorized to change the antenna site from that originally proposed.

CHEM-TV Inc. opened CHEM-TV as a TVA affiliate on August 29.

The CRTC renewed the licences of CHLT and CHEM. CHLT was commended for being one of the most productive television stations in Quebec. The Commission was pleased with CHEM for the excellent technical quality of its local programming, including dramas which haD won nation-wide acclaim.

On August 7, approval was granted for the sale of CHEM Tele 8 Ltee and CHLT Tele 7 Ltee (CHLT was a subsidiary of CHEM) from Telemedia Communications Ltd. to Pathonic Communications inc. (51% controlled by Paul G. Vien and family, 34% by Tele-Metropole inc and 15% by others), and to amalgamate the above companies with Pathonic and then operate under the Pathonic Communications inc. name. Paul Vien was a brother-in-law of Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien, who headed Telemedia. Andre Mercier would continue as president. Both CHEM and CHLT were TVA affiliates and it was anticipated that more TVA production would now originate at CHLT-TV.

On April 15, Tele Inter-Rives Ltee was authorized to increase the effective radiated video power for CIMT-TV from 14,100 watts to 24,900 watts.

CHEM-TV purchased a 3,000 watt replacement transmitter from Larcan Communications Equipment.

The corporate name was now Pathonic Communications Inc.

On August 1, CHEM-TV was authorized to increase effective radiated power from 5,120 watts to 123,000 watts.

Télé-Capitale Inc. was granted approval to operate a French language television network (Réseau Pathonic) consisting of CFCM-TV Quebec, CFER-TV Rimouski, CFER-TV-2 Gaspé-Nord, CHLT-TV Sherbrooke, CHEM-TV Trois-Rivières and CIMT-TV Rivière-du-Loup and its rebroadcasting stations. These stations continued to operate as affiliates of the TVA network.

CHEM-TV was authorized to increase effective radiated power from 123,200 to 154,100 watts.

Télé-Métropole Inc. acquired control of Pathonic Network Inc. Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée owned 99.7% of the voting shares and 40.8% of all of the outstanding shares in Télé-Métropole at this time. 

Lise Beaulieu was appointed vice president of operations.

By this time, CHEM was operating with 325,000 watts video and 32,500 watts audio.

On August 13, Télé-Métropole Inc. was given approval to acquire 75% of Le Réseau de télévision TVA Inc. from Radio Nord Inc., Télé-Inter Rives Ltée and Télévision de la Baie des Chaleurs Inc. (25% each). This purchase gave Télé-Métropole 100% of the network.

The corporate name was now TM Multi-Régions Inc.

Télé-Métropole Inc. acquired CHEM-TV (and other stations) from its subsidiary, TM Multi-Régions Inc.

Quebecor inc. subsidiary Quebecor Média inc. acquired Le Groupe Vidéotron ltée. Because Quebecor would now own two networks – TVA and TQS – the company was told to divest itself of TQS inc. Later in the year, TQS was sold to Cogeco Radio Television Inc. and Bell Globemedia Inc.

On May 15th, following a hearing that began on April 27th, the CRTC announced a two-year licence renewal, effective September 1st 2009, for the TVA Group stations, including CHEM-TV Trois Rivieres, “….to give these broadcasters some flexibility during the current period of economic uncertainty.”

The CRTC approved the change to the ownership of Quebecor Media Inc. through the transfer of the shares held by Capital d’Amérique CDPQ inc. in QMI to CDP Capital d’Amérique Investissement inc., another CDPQ subsidiary. This transaction did not affect the effective control of QMI and of its licensee subsidiaries. QMI owned, through TVA Group Inc. and Videotron Ltd., broadcasting distribution undertakings, television programming undertakings, a pay-per-view undertaking, specialty services and a video-on-demand undertaking.

On July 12, the CRTC administratively renewed the licence for CHEM-DT until August 31, 2012. 

The deadline for stations in mandatory markets to switch from analog to digital was August 31. CHEM-TV became CHEM-DT on that date, retaining channel 8 (virtual 8.1) for its digital operation.

On April 26, the CRTC renewed the broadcasting licences for the national, French-language television network TVA and the conventional television stations associated with that network, to August 31, 2015. In its application, QMI proposed to maintain the current level of five hours per week of local programming broadcast by CHEM-DT Trois-Rivières, CFER-DT Rimouski, CHLT-DT Sherbrooke and CJPM Saguenay, and their respective transmitters. In addition, QMI declared that the licensee intended to maintain the current broadcast level of 18 hours of local programming per week for CFCM-DT Québec, while also requesting increased flexibility to be able to broadcast programs produced locally by CFCM-DT on the network. To that end, QMI proposed the deletion of the requirement that nine hours of local programming broadcast by CFCM-DT focus exclusively on the local Québec market. The Commission considered that QMI’s proposal to broadcast at least 5 hours and 30 minutes of locally produced news, including two newscasts on weekends, was commendable and would contribute significantly to the reflection of the Québec market. In response to concerns expressed by interveners from this community regarding the loss of local flavour in CFCM-DT programming and news, the Commission would continue to require that, of the 18 hours of local programming per broadcast week, 9 hours must focus specifically on the Québec region, including the 5 hours and 30 minutes of local newscasts. However, the Commission considered it unnecessary that the remaining 3 hours and 30 minutes be broadcast exclusively in the local Québec market and considered that it might be broadcast on the TVA network. In addition, if the newscasts were rebroadcast in full, the Commission required that the licensee not count these rebroadcasts when calculating the number of broadcast hours set out in the conditions of licence for each station.