About Télé-Mag

Télé-Mag

Overview

Télé-Mag is a French-language community television station serving Quebec City, Quebec. It broadcasts over the air as CHMG-DT on virtual channel 10 and is owned by Télé-Mag inc. The name is a portmanteau of "télévision" and "magazine," reflecting the station's founding idea: a television service built like a magazine, made up of short-form features on motoring, travel, the outdoors, health, real estate and local life. The station describes itself as a creator of programs — a "créateur d'émissions" — and its schedule is filled largely with magazine-format shows produced in Quebec City, many of them made in partnership with local businesses and organizations.

Télé-Mag is one of a small number of Canadian cable community channels that also hold a terrestrial broadcast licence, allowing it to reach viewers both through Vidéotron's cable system in the Quebec City region and over the air with a low-power signal. Its studios are located at 2700 Jean-Perrin Street in the Les Rivières borough, near the junction of Autoroutes 40 and 73, and its transmitter is located at Place de la Cité in Sainte-Foy.

History

Télé-Mag traces its origins to 1979, when it first broadcast as a cable-only community service under the name "Télé-Plus 24." The "24" referred to its position on the cable dial. In 1994 the service was renamed "Télé-Mag 24," adopting the magazine concept that still defines it. For its first quarter-century, the station existed only on cable in the Quebec City area, in the tradition of Quebec's community television services.

In August 2003, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) granted Télé-Mag inc. a low-power terrestrial broadcast licence, under Decision 2003-413. The new station, CHMG-TV, launched over the air on October 20, 2005, broadcasting on channel 9 at just 38 watts — enough to serve the city core. Because low-power stations were exempt from the mandatory digital transition of August 31, 2011, CHMG-TV continued in analogue for nearly another decade. It began offering high-definition programming through cable in December 2010, and in 2020 it flash-cut its over-the-air signal to digital, becoming CHMG-DT and moving to channel 10, which is also its present cable position. The digital transmitter, still located at Place de la Cité in Sainte-Foy, operates at about 33 watts with an antenna height of 118.8 metres above average terrain.

Télé-Mag's terrestrial licence makes it an exception in Canadian community television. Community channels are normally services of a cable distributor, but on occasion a community channel is itself awarded a licence to broadcast over the air; the CRTC's reference material on community television cites Télé-Mag in Quebec City, along with NAC TV in Neepawa, Manitoba, as examples. In Quebec City the distinction matters: viewers there also receive Vidéotron's own community service, and Télé-Mag's persistence as an independent, locally owned community channel in the same market is unusual.

The station's licence was renewed by the CRTC in Broadcasting Decision 2020-202 for a term running from September 1, 2020 to August 31, 2025. No interventions were filed in response to the renewal application, and the licensee committed to adhere to the provisions and requirements for community television stations set out in the CRTC's community television policy framework, Broadcasting Regulatory Policy 2016-224, which expects community services to provide access for members of the community and to reflect local events and concerns. In 2023, the licence was among those administratively renewed in Broadcasting Decision 2023-245 through August 31, 2026, while the CRTC modernizes its regulatory framework. Télé-Mag marked four decades on the air with a retrospective special, Télé-Mag : 40 ans de passions, celebrating the station's history since 1979.

Programming and Content

Télé-Mag's schedule, broadcast around the clock, is dominated by magazine and lifestyle programming produced in the Quebec City region. Motoring is a particular strength: Virage and Virage plus test and review new vehicles — an October 2026 edition of Virage featured a road test of the 2026 Nissan Rogue PHEV — while Passion Auto Rétro celebrates classic cars and Festidrag.tv covers drag racing. The outdoors is another pillar of the schedule, with Aventure Chasse Pêche and Aventure Express devoted to hunting and fishing, Trappeurs following Quebec trappers, and Leurre Juste à la Pêche focused on angling.

Other regular series include AMS Quad and AMS Nautique, covering all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and boating; Voyages magazine, a travel program whose October 2026 editions visited the Caribbean and Japan; Immobilier Décrypté, on real estate; Le Débat des finances, on personal finance; and the interview program Le Monde de François Reny. Faith programming also has a place on the schedule, including La Parole vivante, L'Heure de la Bonne Nouvelle and the panel program Crois-tu? Community institutions appear through broadcasts such as Télébingo Rotary, produced with the local Rotary club. Reflecting the station's magazine model, some schedule blocks are sponsored health and consumer features produced with local clinics and businesses, alongside entertainment series such as Astromag and Les passionnés du VR et du camping, about recreational vehicles and camping. The station's published schedule flags first-run broadcasts with a "première diffusion" marker — among the premieres listed for the week of October 17, 2026 are new editions of Virage, Crois-tu?, Voyages magazine, AMS Quad and Aventure Chasse Pêche — indicating that the magazine series remain in active production rather than running as a library of repeats.

Audience and Reach

Télé-Mag's audience is the Quebec City metropolitan community. Its low-power over-the-air signal on channel 10, transmitted from Place de la Cité in Sainte-Foy at roughly 33 watts, covers the urban core, while carriage on Vidéotron cable in the region — where the station sits at channel 10 — provides its principal distribution. As a community service, Télé-Mag does not publish ratings; its reach is deliberately local, and its programming is in French, aimed at the francophone audience of the Capitale-Nationale region.

Digital Presence

The station's website, tele-mag.tv, streams the channel live and maintains an on-demand archive of its programs, with new videos posted regularly — editions of its series dated through October 2026 demonstrate an active production slate. The site publishes the station's complete weekly program schedule, making the full lineup of magazine shows available to viewers who watch online rather than by cable or antenna.

Ownership and Organisation

Télé-Mag is owned and operated by Télé-Mag inc., a Quebec City company based at 2700 Jean-Perrin Street. Réal Perron is the company's president; in the fall of 2025, Perron filed correspondence on the company's behalf in the CRTC's "The Path Forward" consultation on the future of the Canadian broadcasting system — a final reply dated September 24, 2025, which the Commission acknowledged in a letter to Perron dated October 14, 2025 — evidence of the small broadcaster's active engagement in national regulatory debates. The company operates with a small staff — business directories list a team of around nine employees — and produces much of its schedule in-house, in keeping with its self-description as a creator of programs. It is licensed by the CRTC as a French-language independent low-power community-based television station.

Contact and Availability

Télé-Mag inc. is headquartered at 2700 Jean-Perrin Street, Suite 120, Québec, Quebec, G2C 1S9. Business directories list the station's telephone number as 418-670-9078. Viewers in the Quebec City area can watch Télé-Mag on Vidéotron cable at channel 10, over the air on CHMG-DT virtual channel 10, and online through the live stream and video archive at tele-mag.tv.