TVA says federal parties have to pay total of $300K for French debate

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MONTREAL — If the four main federal political parties want to take part in the TVA network’s head-to-head French-language debate in the upcoming election campaign, they will have to shell out $75,000 each.

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The Quebecor-owned television network says it needs cash to offset the costs of producing the Face-a-Face debate, which is divided into segments pitting one leader against another.

Louis-Philippe Neveu, executive producer of the debate, says that given the difficult financial, economic and competitive situation facing TVA Group and other industry members, the only option for producing the show is to ask parties to contribute to production costs.

Neveu says in a statement that the $300,000 being sought will only cover part of those costs and will not yield any profit to TVA.

The debate format has been used during recent provincial and federal campaigns in Quebec and has proven quite popular, attracting an average of 1.3 million viewers according to the network.

A federal election call is expected by Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday.

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