The development of television in small markets in Quebec was facilitated by flexible regulations and the desire of the CRTC to bring the maximum number of television services to the regions. Subsequently, because of the great fragility of the small markets, the CRTC encouraged the owners of the television stations to obtain licences to operate television stations affiliated to the other two French-language television networks in Quebec in order to provide local populations with additional television signals and local services.
Now more than ever, the operation of regional CBC/Radio-Canada affiliates represents an essential contribution to the viability or profitability of all the television services offered in our small markets.
The French-language CBC/Radio-Canada affiliates in Quebec currently serve 20% of CBC/Radio-Canada's audience in Quebec. The markets of Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, Saguenay, Rouyn-Noranda and Rivière-du-Loup represent a total population of 1.4 million people aged two or more.
Taken together, the affiliates represent an audience of 4,300,000 viewing hours/week out of a total of 20,700,000 viewing hours/week generated by all the programming presented by CBC/Radio-Canada. That represents a contribution of almost 21% of CBC/Radio-Canada's total viewership generated by the affiliates in Quebec.
The five CBC/Radio-Canada affiliates have local production commitments of 15 hours and five minutes a week, representing a minimum commitment of almost 800 hours of local programming content a year.
Local programs consist primarily of local news, interviews with local celebrities and community bulletin boards for the many communities we serve. The local reflection is thus continually present, hour after hour and day after day, through the free messages on local activities in our communities or the advertising offering services or products available from companies in our regions.
Point 2 of CBC/Radio-Canada's mandate, as mentioned in the study themes and questions suggested by your committee, says that CBC/Radio-Canada must reflect Canada and its regions to national and regional audiences, while serving the special needs of those regions.
We think that CBC/Radio-Canada has fulfilled this part of its mandate very well, thanks in particular to the affiliates that serve a number of Quebec regions. We think that it is extremely important that the affiliate stations continue to fulfil their role by ensuring a regular, daily presence.