Sun News Network shutting down?

[nik-]

I want the CBC to remain, however I'd be happy if they focused on news, documentaries and their Radio. Their TV shows are awful.

Overall they serve a purpose and it would be a sad day for Canada if they were gone.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by nik-

I want the CBC to remain, however I'd be happy if they focused on news, documentaries and their Radio. Their TV shows are awful.

Overall they serve a purpose and it would be a sad day for Canada if they were gone.

Oh don't get me wrong, the TV shows are garbage, but having no publically-funded news network would be a bad thing for Canada.

[Reggie Dunlop]

Just a poor business model to begin with, surprising given the Peladeau family's financial resources. It's demise was utterly predictable. It was a Troll Network, not a News Network.

It did not get top-tier cable carriage because it did not meet the qualifications as a news network as outlined by a non-partisan regulatory agency. It did not cover breaking news. It did not offer regional coverage. It barely allowed for alternative viewpoints.

It was a trial balloon foisted by Stephen Harper's Boys in Short Pants.

I'm all for alternative viewpoints and the thrust and parry of political debate, but Sun News was amateur hour. And I say that as a former Sun newsroom employee.

Ezra Levant is NO GOOD.

[calgaryred]

Originally Posted by The Familia

How do you know what the total viewership is? I find it very hypocritical that all these people who are celebrating the demise of a news station that has a particular agenda, are the same people who preach freedom of speech and the ability to have personal opinions/viewpoints. As much as some people hate to admit it, this network does share the same viewpoints of many people. Do they not have the right to express their own opinion? You don't like it or agree? Don't watch.

thats exactly what the majority of Canadians did, and now they are going off the air

[killer_carlson]

One of the positives of Sun News' time will be their investigation and coverage of the Chief Spence Atawapaskat scandal.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I've seen a few mentions of viewership numbers and they are ugly, between 8 and 14,000 viewers on average daily...Global National News does about 550,000. Carriage wouldn't have made much of a difference, Canadians simply don't care about cable news like Americans do. And when Fox News is several levels better than you (and that's really saying something), you have no chance. 4 years is actually pretty impressive.

[Resolute 14]

^Mandatory carriage wouldn't have helped viewership, but it would have guaranteed revenue since they would have gotten a piece of every cable subscriber's fee. Ultimately though, I think the CRTC got that one right. They didn't force SNN into basic cable, but they did mandate that all news networks had to be made available to all.

Originally Posted by nik-

I'm surprised they're not begging for government backed corporate welfare again

Sun News was never going to succeed anyway, but they did have a point about how CTV and CBC before it were given benefits when their news networks launched that Sun did not. Even today, CBCNN remains mandatory carriage - though the French version in English Canada and the English version in French Canada - which guarantees revenue from all cable subscribers.

CBC as a whole probably would have long since died without corporate welfare, even if news is one of the very few things it does well.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I've seen a few mentions of viewership numbers and they are ugly, between 8 and 14,000 viewers on average daily...Global National News does about 550,000. Carriage wouldn't have made much of a difference, Canadians simply don't care about cable news like Americans do. And when Fox News is several levels better than you (and that's really saying something), you have no chance. 4 years is actually pretty impressive.

IIRC, cable news ratings are quite low in the USA too. People talk about them a lot, but few are really watching.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/201...1-2015/362363/

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

I wish Crackmacs could be fired from twitter somehow.

Maybe I'm not getting it this morning, but is there some sort of inside joke/reference going on here? Or just don't like Crackmacs as a Twitter personality?

[nik-]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

^Mandatory carriage wouldn't have helped viewership, but it would have guaranteed revenue since they would have gotten a piece of every cable subscriber's fee. Ultimately though, I think the CRTC got that one right. They didn't force SNN into basic cable, but they did mandate that all news networks had to be made available to all.



Sun News was never going to succeed anyway, but they did have a point about how CTV and CBC before it were given benefits when their news networks launched that Sun did not. Even today, CBCNN remains mandatory carriage - though the French version in English Canada and the English version in French Canada - which guarantees revenue from all cable subscribers.

CBC as a whole probably would have long since died without corporate welfare, even if news is one of the very few things it does well.

Yeah, they have a point. It's just that the point is totally contrary to the belief system their network is founded on.

Therefore, hilarious.

[CaptainCrunch]

Part of me is sad to see it go. While I disagreed with a lot of their viewpoints. I give them credit for their work with Chief Spence and with the goings on with the Ontario Liberal Party.

I believe that in terms of news and commentary that the more sources the better, its up to the individual to take the information around them and create their own opinions and viewpoints.

In some ways by removing Sun T.V. we're missing a part of every story.

I also feel bad for the people that just lost their jobs

In terms of who we will probably see picked up.

I would expect David Atkins, Rebecca Thompson to find work fairly quickly.

Ezra will do what Ezra does.

Guys like Coren, and some of the others, will probably be focused more around print media.

[btimbit]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

The point he was making is that 200 people lost their jobs. That sucks regardless of how you feel about the station.

And I never said otherwise. I just don't pass up an opportunity to bash Michael Platt.

[edslunch]

Originally Posted by The Familia

I tuned in here and there. Nice to have a counter balance to all the lefties out there. I like how they actually have the balls to say things that a lot of people think but are too scared to say. Obviously there are more people watching then many of you believe.

Or than the advertisers believed, apparently.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

The point he was making is that 200 people lost their jobs. That sucks regardless of how you feel about the station.

No it doesnt. I feel bad for the people in Calgary losing their jobs over conditions they cant control, that sucks. 200 people in wherever the hell they are losing their jobs at some third rate hack of a news channel?

Its not like they're being banished into the wilderness and being given guns with only 1 bullet.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by Locke

No it doesnt. I feel bad for the people in Calgary losing their jobs over conditions they cant control, that sucks. 200 people in wherever the hell they are losing their jobs at some third rate hack of a news channel?

Its not like they're being banished into the wilderness and being given guns with only 1 bullet.

Broadcasting industry isn't doing great. Some of the folks working there, such as cameramen, assignment editors, and other production staff - would be doing so regardless of their political leanings.

I don't see how this is different than any group of employees losing their jobs.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Maybe I'm not getting it this morning, but is there some sort of inside joke/reference going on here? Or just don't like Crackmacs as a Twitter personality?

No inside joke, just don't care for Crackmacs.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by JiriHrdina

The point he was making is that 200 people lost their jobs. That sucks regardless of how you feel about the station.

I'm sure if 200 people got laid off from the CBC the Sun News Network would have been the first in line to loudly applaud long-overdue cutbacks. So, while *I* think it is sad for those people, they themselves should be applauding the gains in societal efficiency made possible by closing this underperforming division of the parent company.

[CaptainCrunch]

Except that Sun T.V. wasn't a taxpayers funded entity like the CBC is. Plus its been shown that the CBC is an entity that needs to be looked at from an efficiency and waste standpoint.

Isn't the news media supposed to look at things like waste in government organizations? Isn't that their job.

And in terms of societal efficiency, I'm not sure if that's just merely a $10.00 phrase for I didn't like them and I'm glad their dead. But whatever.

You are right on one point, they are dead because they made a lot of mistakes and they didn't appeal to a broad enough audience, and that's the way that business works.

[jammies]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Except that Sun T.V. wasn't a taxpayers funded entity like the CBC is.

Jobs are jobs, it's all well and good to want to "cut waste" but that affects people's livelihoods as well. All I'm saying is that to be logically consistent, they should welcome their own job losses if it improves shareholder value. Isn't that a sacred tenet of the "foaming-mouth" school of capitalism to which they pay such uncritical homage?

[4X4]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Except that Sun T.V. wasn't a taxpayers funded entity like the CBC is. Plus its been shown that the CBC is an entity that needs to be looked at from an efficiency and waste standpoint.

Isn't the news media supposed to look at things like waste in government organizations? Isn't that their job.

And in terms of societal efficiency, I'm not sure if that's just merely a $10.00 phrase for I didn't like them and I'm glad their dead. But whatever.

You are right on one point, they are dead because they made a lot of mistakes and they didn't appeal to a broad enough audience, and that's the way that business works.

Yeah but wasn't Sun the network that criticized CRTC for forcing certain cable companies to carry certain channels (that would ultimately get money from), and then subsequently applied for the same status?

I think the glee that some are getting out of this is that Sun was a niche channel that is failing under the exact circumstances they were championing.

I'm not one to be happy about 'people' losing their jobs, but I do think it's funny that 'certain people' are losing their jobs. And had they not been totally hypocritical about it, I wouldn't find it funny at all. But they did, so I do.