Groupe Vidéotron ltée pulls out of CCTA to save money
Le Groupe Vidéotron ltée has pulled out of the Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA) as a cost cutting measure. "It’s a matter of cost," says Luc Lavoie, spokesperson for parent company Quebecor Inc. He notes that Vidéotron will save just over a million dollars by dropping its membership in the cable association. Janet Yale, CCTA president and CEO, says that despite the loss of Vidéotron as a member, "it’s business as usual" at the cable association. "For this year, we had some staff departures fairly early in the year, and as it turned out have not replaced those people, so have simply decided not to replace them. On the staff side, we’re smaller but we’re fine, and we’ll cut some of our discretionary research projects and some initiatives we might have otherwise have done," she says. "But in terms of the core work that we do, it’s really business as usual for the balance of the year." Lavoie adds that Quebecor has not yet looked into the possibility of withdrawing subsidiary TVA Group Inc from the Canadian Association of Broadcasters. However, it seems to be a possibility given the huge debt that Quebecor took on with its $4.9-billion acquisition of Groupe Vidéotron. It also paid $241 million to Rogers Communications Inc to abandon a deal that the cableco had previously cemented to purchase Vidéotron.

Unlock all the Canadian telecom, broadcasting and digital media news you need.

Take a free trial or subscribe to The Wire Report now.