ICI Radio-Canada Télé

This network is considered more popular than CBC Television. It does not face such intense competition from American networks. Despite this, it has trailed TVA in the ratings for most of the last 30 years, roughly as long as its English counterpart has trailed CTV. Its ratings have improved with offbeat sitcoms, and the talk show Tout le monde en parle. With this success, however, have come accusations of dumbing down. For instance, Tout le monde en parle replaced the long-running Sunday night arts series Les Beaux Dimanches.

News programming is anchored by Le Téléjournal, which airs nightly at 10:00 p.m. Local newscasts, which air during the lunch and supper hours, now also carry the Téléjournal name, i.e., Le Téléjournal Montréal. The regional newscasts used to be called Ce Soir (This Evening).

Of Canada's three major French-language television networks, Radio-Canada was the only one that, until 2012, broadcast terrestrially in all Canadian provinces. With the exception of Atlantic Canada, where a single station serves all four provinces, the network has at least one originating station in every province. These stations serve every major market in French and English Canada, with privately owned affiliates serving smaller markets in Quebec.

Unlike CBC Television affiliates, which often had several alternative programming sources, Radio-Canada affiliates are effectively constrained to carry network programming throughout the day in pattern with no preemptions. The only exceptions are for local and regional programming and commercials.

In 2007, Radio-Canada announced its intention to terminate its long-time affiliation with three regional affiliates in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières, and Saguenay. These stations were owned by Cogeco, at the time a majority owner of commercial rival TQS (now Noovo). By the end of the year, TQS had filed for bankruptcy; as part of exiting bankruptcy, a deal was announced the following spring for Radio-Canada to directly acquire the stations.[7] The transaction was approved by the CRTC on June 26, 2008.[8] Only the stations in Rouyn-Noranda (CKRN-DT, which closed in 2018)[9] and Rivière-du-Loup (CKRT-DT, which closed in 2021)[10] remained as private affiliates, rather than owned-and-operated stations.

On February 27, 2009, CBC/Radio-Canada President Hubert Lacroix admitted at the Empire Club of Canada that the corporation is facing a budget shortfall and as a result some services may be forced to close down and/or stations merged or sold off, saying:

"La crise économique nous force à revoir toutes les facettes de nos activités."
("The economic crisis forced us to review all facets of our activities.")[11]

It is not yet clear how the announcement will affect stations owned by either CBC Television or Télévision de Radio-Canada, however it is envisaged that regional news programming may be merged in the regions outside Quebec.

Radio-Canada once operated an extensive network of rebroadcasters, but they were closed by 2012.

SRC converted its originating station transmitters to digital as part of the digital transition deadline in mandatory markets, which took place on August 31, 2011.

On July 31, 2012, all of the corporation's 620 analogue television transmitters were permanently shut down, leaving CBC's English and French television network with a total of 27 digital transmitters.

The network's logo until 2013; the "Télévision" portion was often excluded in promos, leaving only the CBC logo.

The Network's first logo after the "ICI" rebrand, used from 2013 to 2016.

For most of its history, the network was branded as Radio-Canada. In television listings such as TV Guide or TV Hebdo, where space limitations usually require television networks to be referred to by a three-letter abbreviation; while its full name was previously Télévision de Radio-Canada, the network was normally coded as SRC (for Société Radio-Canada, the French language corporate name of the CBC as a whole). While the network experimented with using SRC as its on-air brand in the 1990s, within a few months it reverted to using "Radio-Canada" for nearly all verbal references. The experiment ended later in the decade. In 2009 Radio-Canada refreshed its branding featuring the word "Télévision" underneath the corporate logo; in promos, it features the logo, without any wording or slogans.

On June 5, 2013, it was announced that as part of an overall effort to unify the CBC's French-language platforms and outlets under a common name, Télévision de Radio-Canada was to be renamed Ici Télé on September 9, 2013—a nod to its longtime system cue dating back to the 1930s on radio, Ici Radio-Canada (This is Radio-Canada).[12][13][14][15] The re-branding was panned by critics and politicians, who felt that the new brand was too confusing, and criticized the CBC's plans to downplay the historic "Radio-Canada" name as a viewer-facing brand, along with the reported $400,000 cost of the new campaign in the midst of budget cuts. In response to the criticism, Hubert Lacroix announced a compromise, where the Radio-Canada name would be added to the revised branding, resulting in Ici Radio-Canada Télé as its official name.[16][17][18]

The ombudsman of Radio-Canada has been Pierre Tourangeau since July 2011. He was preceded by Julie Miville-Dechêne (2007–2011) Renaud Gilbert (2000–2007), Marcel Pépin (1997–1999), Mario Cardinal (1993–1997) and Bruno Gauron (1992).

On March 5, 2005, Télévision de Radio-Canada launched an HD simulcast of its Montreal station CBFT-DT. Since that time they have also launched HD simulcasts in Quebec City (CBVT-DT), Ottawa (CBOFT-DT), Toronto (CBLFT-DT) and Vancouver (CBUFT-DT). The HD feed is available through both pay television services, and through ATSC digital terrestrial television on the following channels:

• Quebec City: 12 (11.1)
• Montreal: 19 (2.1)
• Ottawa: 22 (9.1)
• Toronto: 24 (25.1)
• Vancouver: 26 (26.1)

On September 10, 2007, the network (as well as sister cable news network RDI) began broadcasting all programming solely in the 16:9 aspect ratio with few exceptions, and began letterboxing its widescreen feed for standard definition viewers.

Certain shows such as Virginie and Le Téléjournal are carried on international francophone channel TV5Monde.

As with CBC Television, Ici Télé stations can be viewed over-the-air in the northern United States including the border areas of eastern Maine via CBAFT-DT Moncton or CKRT-DT Rivière-du-Loup; northern and central New England via CKSH-DT Sherbrooke; the border areas of New York and Vermont via CBFT-DT Montreal, CBOFT-DT Ottawa-Gatineau or CBLFT-DT Toronto; or in northwest Washington via CBUFT-DT Vancouver.

• Marcel Desjardins — televised news editor-in-chief and director[19][20]
• Pierre Dufault — sports journalist[21]
• Pierre Nadeau — journalist, television presenter and producer[22][23]

• Official website (in French)
• CBC/Radio-Canada corporate site
• SRC history - Canadian Communications Foundation