Date Posted: June 3, 2011
Print Edition: May 27, 2011
By Trevor Fik (The Cascade) – Email
Hailed as “Fox News North,” Canada’s newest all-news channel Sun News Network recently celebrated its first month on television, and what a month it has been. Network battles and low-ratings have plagued the Quebec-based company’s initial run, leaving the future of the news channel in doubt and the network’s current status in disarray.
Despite strong premiere ratings, and an even stronger sense of optimism that heralded the program’s premiere, Sun News has faced nothing but dismal ratings and rejection by network carriers since it began broadcasting on April 18.
Sun News CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau’s motivation for creating the pay-news channel was based on the initial promise of featuring more daring and “hard news and straight talk” programs. The news network premiere tempted an initial 37,000 viewers to tune in. However, recent numbers have been increasingly telling for the now struggling news program.
Within a week of the network’s first broadcast the total number for Sun News was a staggeringly low 12,000 viewers, compared to CBC News’ 263,000 viewers on the same night. It is estimated that in some time slots the network has been attracting as few as 4,000 viewers according to the Canadian Press.
Low-ratings have been due in part to the subscription nature of the channel, with individuals forced to pay a monthly fee to watch the network. And while companies like Shaw Cable are offering the first 6 months of the network for free, satellite television company Bell has dropped Sun News Network from its programming. Bell has cited a lack of fee agreement as a reason for doing so.
“We had hoped to come to a commercial agreement based on the fact that Sun News is a new and relatively untested channel on the market,” noted Bell spokesperson Jason Laszlo. “But the price being asked is quite excessive – it’s in line with what would usually be quoted for a well-established and popular channel,” he said.
Sun News CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau asserted that the central reason behind the network’s creation was to halt what he felt was the overwhelming export of American news in to Canada. CBC news and other Canadian news mainstays are “uninspiring” according to Peladeau, forcing many to look south of the border to get an adequate world news “fix.”
And while the promise of a more daring and audience friendly newscast is not something to frown upon, when your main marketing ploy is centered on a comparison with the scourge of the television-journalism world, it does not inspire very much confidence.
Fox News has kept itself alive not with credible investigative journalism or by presenting a balanced and fair look at the issues, but can instead credit its ratings to right-wing, borderline offensive news commentators. With such a star-studded news line-up consisting of Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, it is a wonder that Sun News Network would even want to be mentioned in the same breath as the American media mogul.
This marketing blunder is only the first of many mistakes that will continue to hamper any chance at success Sun News Network may hope to achieve.
With people accessing world news on a regular basis online, an Internet savvy population is increasingly looking elsewhere to become updated on world happenings. And while people are starting to move away from TV to watch the news, it seems counter-productive to ask them to come back to television, but first pay for the privilege.
The current market for news television would be difficult enough to break in to as it is, with such industry giants as CBC, Global, and American news channel CNN, without the added cost of paying for a program with an unproven track record. Unless the product that Sun News Network is offering is at such a premium that it requires payment, Sun should not be forcing individuals to pony up for the privilege of viewing it.
And according to the ratings thus far, it is not something worth parting with your cash for.
