Sun News Network is about to sign off, permanently. CBC News has learned that the cable news television channel will shut down early Friday.
The network began broadcasting in April 2011, launching a right-of-centre programming schedule, but it has had a constant challenge attracting viewers.
Its supporters blamed the CRTC for not giving it the same access enjoyed by news channels operated by CBC and CTV.
The federal broadcast regulator denied Sun News a guaranteed spot on basic cable TV packages in August 2013.
Data released as part of that application showed that while the network was available to 5.1 million households, it was only attracting, on average, 8,000 viewers at any given time.
That number was far lower than what well-established all-news networks operated by CTV and CBC were reporting. CBC, for example, said it had eight times as many viewers as Sun News.
When Quebecor launched the station, media pundits quickly dubbed it "Fox News North."
Once again here I am feeling very envious of my Canadian friends.
If only our FCC was as ballsy as the Canadian federal regulators. They should have labeled the network a propaganda arm of the Republican party and forced it off the air years ago.
In other news a local Fox affiliate "accidentally" identified President Obama as a suspect in a sexual assault.
Good for Canada, I hope it wasn't just because the ratings were down.
ReplyDeleteAnd we in America have Kyle Smith with the NYPost ripping into Jon Stewart as if he is a journalist instead of a comedian. Scared of the truth? You bet.
http://nypost.com/2015/02/15/how-jon-stewart-turned-lies-into-comedy-and-brainwashed-a-generation/
Mildred
I love how he spouts off that Jon "brainwashed" a generation. I am so sorry, but I happen to think my children (adults) and other children/adults in the US and abroad, a smarter than that. Stewart, while a comedian, always had truth in his commentary, and wasn't afraid to question authority. I welcomed that, as did my children. He was well read and had interesting guests on his show. That is something that many news outlets are afraid to do. Jon will be sorely missed in this capacity, but I look forward to what he will bring to the masses in the future. Kyle Smith is an idiot, IMHO.
DeleteSo, to Smith (if that IS his real name), playing clips of politicians saying moronic shit and then mocking the moronic shit equals "lies and brainwashing"? I wonder what he calls it when Fox has someone make up some bullshit on one of the "opinion shows" so that five minutes later, it can be reported as "news" via the "some people are saying..." dodge on their "hard news" program?
Delete-Or selectively editing video to make it look like someone said something they didn't actually say ("you didn't build that")?
Or perhaps Kyle is actually a huge Daily Show fan and is just trying to goad Jon into staying?
Canada actually has laws protecting its citizens from lies disguised as "news".
ReplyDeleteHere's an interesting article from 2011 from when Sun hadn't yet premiered: http://www.yesmagazine.org/people-power/a-law-against-lying-on-the-news
"The Canadian media speculated that the withdrawal may have been provoked in no small part by the large sector of the public that voiced its displeasure at the idea of Sun TV coarsening the public discourse and deliberately muddying the political waters, akin to what they see in American media. "
Yep, USA is #1 at doing news wrong.
8000 viewers is more than the SPC has.
ReplyDeleteWhen will the White House finally go after FOX NOISE??? All those 'accidental' accusations and insinuations are amounting to slander, and they should be once and for all be shut down for good.
ReplyDeleteEhhh.... I don't know about this, and I am a long-time reader of yours, Gryph.
ReplyDeleteFox News is fucking stupid, and I imagine that their Canadian counterpart is just as dumb. But I don't agree with forcing them off the air.
Perhaps I am not understanding the situation correctly. Were they basically forced off because there were not enough viewers, so advertising wasn't worth much. And the bottom line is that they weren't profitable enough to keep them on.
If that is the case, then I am fine with taking them off the air. Business is business. But if it was taken off because of their insane views and nothing more, then I object.
I think that everyone should be allowed to watch all of the stupid and crazy crap that they want. I have faith that eventually the majority will see Faux News for what it is and hold it up as an example of how NOT to report.
Sun TV tried to get the cable companies to carry it in their basic packages, but a successful lobby of Canadians to the CRTC (the regulatory body) resulted in Sun losing their bid. Canada is basically a centre-left country. Yes, we have a Conservative government, but that's only because we have a multi-party system so the Cons earned far fewer votes than the other parties combined (and the other parties are all left of centre). And consensus from the TV critics was that Sun TV was "opinion" TV, not news...
DeleteMaple - don't forget Sun Media is part of Quebecor, which is run by Pierre Peladeau, who is trying to cozy up to the Parti Quebecois. Anon @ 2:00 P.M. - Sun TV was losing a lot of money, and most educated Canadians seen them as a faux knock-off.
Delete"I think that everyone should be allowed to watch all of the stupid and crazy crap that they want."
ReplyDeleteCrazy and stupid, sure, but slanderous & libelous. No. You can be sued if you do it in print, why not in the visual media? Just are frigging deep are the pockets of Fox & its lawyers? Some young hotshot lawyer should take on a case pro bono to make his name. (Haven't I seen this in a movie?)
I'm not smart enough to know why, but as a Canadian, I've never seen our anti hate speech laws and insistence on the integrity of our news broadcasters as limits on freedom. It's not a perfect country, and we can be a tad passive aggressive, especially when defending it, but we love to laugh at ourselves and others, most of us cherish our cultural diversity, and we demand to be heard. Fox News is a fraud. It should be called Fox Magazine, or Fox Talk, or something else that is, at least, honest.
ReplyDelete