By Alisha Parchment
Standing in front of a microphone at a press conference in Toronto almost a year ago, wearing co-ordinating crisp suits and ties, stands Pierre Karl Péladeau, chief executive of Quebecor Media Inc., and Kory Teneycke, Quebecor’s vice-president of development. Amidst the flashing lights and anticipation that filled the room, Quebecor revealed its newest project – the Sun News Network.
Cue the well-oiled media frenzy machine.
Launching this April, the network directly competes with CBC’s News Network and the CTV News Channel becoming Canada’s third 24-hour English-language cable news channel.
The plan, according to a press release from Péladeau, is to follow a “hard news, straight talk” formula, one that is tried and tested in the French-language media.
Before the channel’s name was even on the lips of Canadians, Quebecor needed approval from the CRTC. Last June, an application was made for a three-year, Category 1 Specialty TV licence which would have required cable and satellite carriers to include the channel. The CRTC denied the request.
In the end, Quebecor withdrew their previous attempts, and Sun News Network was granted a five-year Category 2 specialty channel license, meaning it would have to begin bargaining with satellite and cable carriers for a spot on their line-up. According to the regulations of the CRTC, Canadians must now subscribe to Sun News Network if they want to tune in.
“It’s new but in a way it is a re-packaged version of something that is old,” says Ian Morrison, spokesperson for Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, self-described watchdogs for Canadian programming. He is referring to Toronto 1 (now Sun TV) Quebecor’s first attempt at a similar channel that failed to gain momentum. So Quebecor is not starting from scratch. Morrison estimates, “In the last five years, they’ve actually lost about $50 million dollars keeping [the channel] alive.”
Dubbed “Fox News North” by some who view it as a clone of the U.S.-based Fox News, critics question its credibility. “Fox News is their model. I don’t think Canadians on-air can replicate that kind of idiocy though,” suggests Toronto Star columnist Heather Mallick in an email to Fine Cut. “I don’t think Canada is the kind of country that is attracted to the simpleton’s view. So I don’t know that it will attract many viewers. Canadians want more credible information, not less.”
Currently, the Sun News Network is under Teneycke’s leadership. He is the former spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. According to the Globe and Mail, Teneycke is known for his tough-guy political attitude and played a pivotal role in the Conservative victory over former Liberal leader Stéphane Dion’s carbon-tax initiative.
International activist organization, Avaaz, began its own crusade against the upcoming network with an online petition titled “Stop Fox News North” last fall. It claimed Harper would be using Sun News Network to “push American-style hate media onto [Canadian] airwaves” and would be “funded with money from our cable TV fees.”
The news of these accusations spread, garnering the petition more than 80,000 signatures, 21,000 of which Avaaz delivered to the CRTC. Even literary giant Margaret Atwood added her name, but said in an email to the Globe and Mail she signed the petition in protest of Harper’s style of government and not as an objection to Sun News Network.
Shortly after Avaaz’s request for a police investigation in September of last year, Teneycke unexpectedly resigned from his position, saying his past involvement with the Harper government left an unfavourable impression. However, in January 2011, Teneycke resumed his position.
[pullquote]“It will represent grumpy old men. I think we hear from them all the time. They never shut up.”
- Heather Mallick, Toronto Star columist [/pullquote]
Poised to be one of the Sun News Network’s most promising additions is conservative commentator and author, Ezra Levant. He is set up to host his own news analysis show. Not expecting that competition will be an issue, it is Levant’s belief that, “Canadians don’t really watch the two channels that they have been given – CBC News Network and CTV News.” He is looking forward to providing an alternative news source.
“I’m excited to talk to Canadians every single day about news in a way that I don’t think they have heard from before – breaking open the news cartel right now on some issues where only one point of view is allowed.”
For some, the Sun News Network may seem to balance Canada’s news, answering a silent call for a more conservative-leaning take on our society. “It is their hype that somehow is making them different,” says Morrison.
But what will Canadians be seeing when they watch Sun News Network? According to Levant, the network will emulate the Sun chain of tabloid newspapers owned by Quebecor. “If you want a feeling of what Sun TV is going to look like, just pick up the Toronto Sun. It is going to be a fun, peppy antidote to the bland mainstream consensus,” he says.
“Some people have criticized the very idea of another voice,” says Levant. “There is such a consensus approach to issues of the day. It is a politically correct liberal consensus and once in a while the consensus is right - but quite often it’s not, and Canadians don’t have a place to go for the other point of view.”
Others aren’t as keen, considering what the channel might embody. “It will represent grumpy old men,” says Mallick. “I think we hear from them all the time. They never shut up. They’re in their basements typing angry anonymous comments to the CBC. Now they’ll have their own channel!”
On the other hand, some love a little friendly competition. “We welcome Sun TV to the marketplace; competition is good for everyone, especially viewers,” says Wendy Freeman, CTV News president in an email to Fine Cut.
Only time can tell what the network will bring to the table. In the meantime, Levant has his own prediction. “I think we are going to be the most talked about news channel in the country.”
