Montreal Sports Station Obliged to Speak French | |
by James Careless
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The move is due to Bell Media purchasing Astral Media’s three Montreal radio stations — a deal that must be approved by Canada’s broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
To comply with the CRTC’s ownership rules — designed to prevent one broadcaster from dominating any given market — Bell has to either flip TSN 990’s language format to French, or sell the station outright. Since Bell doesn’t want to sell, TSN 990 will become RDS 990; a branding that is in line with Bell Media’s Réseau des Sports (RDS) TV network.
Bell Media’s purchase of Astral Media will be reviewed during a September CRTC hearing in Montreal. Theoretically, the CRTC can issue an exemption to Bell Media, to allow TSN 990 to remain English.
That’s a reprieve that Montreal’s English-speaking minority is lobbying for, along with local English language media such as the Montreal Gazette newspaper.
Local TSN 990 fans have also launched a protest page on Facebook.
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