Sun News Network, often referred to as “Fox News North,” went off the air early Friday. The company’s failure to find a buyer after months of searching leaves some 200 people out of work.
Launched in 2011 as a conservative alternative to the “lefty bias” of Canada’s larger networks, including the CTV Television Network and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Sun News struggled for ratings even as its many outspoken personalities, such as journalist Ezra Levant, garnered national attention.
“Sun News Network, as a TV channel, is gone. But the people and ideas that animated it are still very much alive — and I’m sure many of them will go on to even greater things,” Levant, whose first day on air involved him showing controversial Muhammad cartoons published by a Danish newspaper, told the Washington Examiner’s media desk Friday.
“I hope they’ll bring with them some of our spirit. That is, being independent, contrarian, conservative, irreverent, and politically incorrect,” he said.
There was no announcement or lead-up to Sun News going off air. It went dark suddenly and its regular programming was instead replaced with an image of the group’s logo. Few of the employees were given advance notice.
The owner, Sun Media Corp., said Friday that the shutdown is the result of its failure to find a buyer.
“[N]o party capable of taking over the channel was found,” president and CEO of Media Group and Sun Media Corporation Julie Tremblay said in statement coordinated Friday with the shuttering of the conservative news group, adding that its financial losses left its owner with “no alternative.”
“This is an unfortunate outcome; shutting down Sun News was certainly not our goal,” she said.
“Over the past four years, we tried everything we could to achieve sufficient market penetration to generate the profits needed to operate a national news channel. Sadly, the numerous obstacles to carriage that we encountered spelled the end of this venture,” she added. “The closure is regrettable for the Canadian broadcasting system, which is losing a distinctively Canadian voice in the national news space.”
One issue that reportedly contributed to Sun News shuttering is its supposed tight budget, which limited the group’s original reporting and forced it to rely more on commentary, according to the Canadian Press.
Another issue that likely contributed to Sun News’ poor ratings, and one that the group’s executives have long complained about, is the fact that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, the country’s broadcast regulator, ruled in 2013 against allowing the conservative group to be carried on basic cable.
“The federal broadcast regulator denied Sun News a guaranteed spot on basic cable TV packages in August 2013,” CBC reported, noting Sun News since its launch was denied the same exposure enjoyed by news groups like CTV.
Sun News executives reacted immediately in 2013 to being denied access to a larger audience by saying the ruling would be the end of the network.
“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,” CBC reported, adding that it reaches nearly eight times as many viewers as Sun News.
The Canadian Press noted: “Losses had mounted at the network, according to CRTC documents which said it lost $17 million in 2012 and $14.8 million in 2013.”
Asked if it’s possible for the conservative news network to make a comeback, Levant told the Examiner: “I doubt that would happen on conventional TV in Canada. It is highly regulated, to begin with. And the cable company oligopoly makes getting into cable packages difficult.”
