Official Languages committee  That may be.

Official Languages committee  What they told us is that CBC/Radio-Canada would have to develop its own production, but that they would not compensate us for our costs; in other words, we would have to defray all of those costs on our own, without being accredited or having access to the site, and so on. They

Official Languages committee  Also, that coverage has to be available to all Canadians. Cutting off Quebec and Ottawa is really not a great idea. The fact is that this production would be very costly, even though we would be eliminating most of the market.

Official Languages committee  As regards what would happen if we were to receive compensation for covering the Games, the problem remains the same. We do not own the rights. If we cannot be there on the ground, if we have no accreditation and if we are not allowed to shoot, we will not be able to do that.

Official Languages committee  They can't afford to get over it, in my opinion. I cannot believe that, after paying $163 million, they would tell us to go ahead and sell advertising and come in with them. They paid for the rights and they want to exercise them. They cannot allow another broadcaster to do that

Official Languages committee  Can I add something about the balance of needs? This is all a question of balance of needs. That's why we ask if it's a good balance of needs to cut all the cultural programming during two weeks, all information programming, to one million Canadians outside Quebec because 12,000

Official Languages committee  Well, it's the same problem. The consortium is telling us that we can cover the Games, but it will be their advertising and their revenues, and we will have to bear the costs.

Official Languages committee  When they set out their conditions, there was no mention of that. Yesterday morning, they made no reference to any kind of compensation. They first condition is that we relinquish our entire commercial inventory as well as all the revenues.

Official Languages committee  Following Tuesday's Committee meeting, they only made us aware of their conditions verbally. They told us that they would forward them to us in writing in the coming days. The fact remains, though, that the first condition was for us to relinquish our entire commercial inventory.

Official Languages committee  We would have to relinquish our entire commercial inventory and all the revenues.

Official Languages committee  I'm totally with you. There's nothing I would have liked more than to broadcast the Olympic Games. For our team, it's a great moment. For Canadians, it's a great moment. We all know that. The problem is that we lost the bid. We lost the bid to those guys who made a proposition—

Official Languages committee  About a year or a year and a half ago, we offered to enter into a co-production agreement, which would have allowed us to have a presence everywhere, but that did not work out.

Official Languages committee  Oh, I understand. At CTV, they felt the agreement had worked very well, and I fully agree that it was very profitable for them. Indeed, CTV provided the coverage via CBC/Radio-Canada and picked up all the profits. It was an extraordinary arrangement for CTV—I will give you that.

Official Languages committee  There are many different things to be considered. It is important to understand how things work on television. This is the prime TV broadcasting season. Major Canadian dramas series are ready, and we have newscasts and major variety programs as well. Everything is ready. We will

Official Languages committee  Major advertisers will be buying time on RDS and TQS, because they are the ones that own the broadcast rights for the Olympic Games. Our status would be that of a third broadcaster and we would lose the commercial revenues that normally flow from our major drama series, series we