As the economic outlook grows brighter in Quebec’s cultural capital, Montreal is once again assuming its role as one of Canada’s most diverse, vibrant and exciting cities.

A huge student population contributes to the liveliness of the town. Together, the Université de Montréal, Université du Québec à Montréal, McGill University and Concordia University enroll almost 150,000 students per year – that’s more university students per capita than any other North American city. Young Montrealers aged 18-35 are the most highly educated in Canada.

The Montreal metropolitan region is home to over 80 ethnic groups. The largest is Italian (165,000), followed closely by a large Jewish community (100,000) and Canada’s largest concentration of Muslims (80,000). Greeks number 50,000 while Chinese number 35,000. Visible minorities make up 12% of the population. Many ethnic community newspapers and magazines are published in the Montreal area, including eight Italian, seven Arabic, five Armenian, four Greek, three Spanish and two German.

The biggest change in the media landscape has been in radio. This year a challenge launched by the federal Competition Bureau proved ineffective in preventing Montreal-based Astral Media from acquiring 19 radio stations from Telemedia, one of two smaller broadcasters that have decided to leave the market as the bigger players – Astral, Corus and Standard – continue to consolidate.

Astral now has a near-monopoly in six advertising markets in Quebec, including Sherbrooke, where it is now the only game in town. So far, prices have not increased. Station formats have also not changed, but buyers speculate that they soon will in order to attract more diverse demographics and increase overall reach. TVA, Quebec’s largest broadcaster, and Radio Media purchased the rest of Telemedia’s stations.

In December, Astral president and CEO Ian Greenberg told The Globe and Mail that Astral ‘will continue to keep an eye open for potential acquisition targets in its three niches – specialty and pay television, radio and outdoor advertising.’ That may include Quebec specialty TV channel Canal Evasion, which Bell Globemedia is looking to sell.

Television has not seen as many changes, but Quebec remains a distinct market.

Colette Gemme, media buying manager for BBDO Montreal, explains that ‘television is unique in Quebec, in that the top-rated shows tend to obtain extremely high market share. A top show can win up to 38% of viewers in same cases, compared to the rest of Canada where a number-one show might get 8 or 9%.’

The numbers speak to local viewers’ fondness for home-grown shows featuring Quebecois stars. Out of 24.5 weekly average hours tuned in, Quebecers will watch domestic conventional channels 72% of the time, versus the rest of Canada which prefers pay-per-view, VCR, or American networks.

For media planners, that means there are generally fewer windows of opportunity for spots. ‘When you plan a buy here,’ Gemme says, ‘you have maybe three or four spots per week.’

Newspapers have remained relatively stable since journalists at the Montreal Gazette pulled their bylines to protest CanWest’s new national editorial policy earlier this year.

‘After a number of years with a generally negative business environment, Montreal has resumed its role as one of Canada’s great cities,’ says Mark Sherman, president of Montreal- and Toronto-based The Media Experts. ‘Typically what that does is increase demand on media inventory.’

Anecdotally, media buyers in Montreal have not yet experienced price rises in line with the city’s recent growth. That could change as clients across the country develop an interest in the market. Sherman says Montreal will have to focus on selling itself before that happens.

One Toronto media buyer, however, commented that a number of local ‘handshake deals’ continue to be made with the francophone media – deals that outsiders are not privy to – which could prove a deterrent to national buyers.

Nonetheless, Quebec saw $1.15 billion in overall advertising investments in 2001, and it looks like that number will only go up.