TQS

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Image:Tqs-logo.gif TQS is a Canadian French language commercial television network in Quebec.

The network launched in 1986 as Télévision Quatre Saisons (Four Seasons Television) under the ownership of the Pouliot family, who then owned Montreal's CTV affiliate, CFCF. However, the network quickly ran into financial problems and was sold to Quebec cable company Vidéotron, who already owned TVA, Quebec's other private commercial network. Due to monopoly ownership concerns, Vidéotron sold TQS to Quebecor, a newspaper publisher.

Quebecor later acquired Vidéotron itself, and put TQS back on the market. The network is now owned jointly by Bell Globemedia and Cogeco, another cable company.

The network brands itself as le mouton noir de la télé, or "the black sheep of television". It is generally runner-up in the ratings to TVA, although the network has produced a number of major hit series in Quebec.

The network is not widely available outside of Quebec, although some communities in northern and eastern Ontario and in New Brunswick receive TQS affiliates on cable. Unlike TVA, TQS does not have mandatory cable carriage rights outside of Quebec, but may be offered at a cable company's discretion if there is a sufficient local market for French language television programming. The network affiliate in Rivière-du-Loup also has a rebroadcaster in Edmundston, New Brunswick, the network's only over-the-air transmitter outside of Quebec.

The network is known in Canada for Bleu Nuit, a series which airs softcore pornography after midnight several nights a week.

In early 2005, TQS was part of the consortium that won the Canadian broadcast rights to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as the 2012 Summer Olympics. This was considered a serious coup, as the rival CBC had consistently won Olympic broadcast rights from the 1996 Summer Olympics through to the 2008 Summer Olympics. CTV and TQS will be the primary broadcasters; TSN, RDS and Rogers Sportsnet will provide supplementary coverage.