Tuesday, May 08, 2012

Sun News Network's Problem Is Not Being "High On The Dial"

Sun News Network received a $3-million investment from its co-owners in the last quarter, as losses accelerated at the upstart network amid struggles to attract the subscriber base needed to woo large advertisers.

[...]

Sun News launched just over a year ago, and worked to secure distribution deals with broadcasters across the country. But in many jurisdictions the channel is located high on the dial, making it difficult for casual viewers to locate the subscription specialty channel.

Sun News Network's problem is being shitty.  Anyone who really wanted to locate it has done so by now.  The problem is, nobody does.   Well, 19 people: Ed Kennedy, the Fourniers, a couple of Neo-Nazis, and Ezra's dad. 

In fact being high on the dial means that people who might hear about it via other media sources and think it might possibly be interesting or controversial never need to get disabused of their illusions. 

In fact, the only reason that anybody outside of the hard-core angry-old-white-guy target demo is watching it these days is because Ezra and co.  tend to go meta and trash their fellows within the sad, small, self-loathing tribe that Canadian journalism.  And then these poor doomed saps figure they can wank an easy column out of playing victim to the jerks at Fox News North.  But in so far as they ref Sun News, they give the network oxygen.  If CBC and CTV and talk radio ceased to exist and it came down to Sun TV vs. the Rotisserie Chicken channel, the rotating chicken would win and next time you saw Ezra he'd be wearing a dorky hat and stuffing your McNuggets into a plastic clam-shell.

5 comments:

Skinny Dipper said...

I have three channels blocked out through parental controls--two infomercial channels and Sun News. I don't even have CTS blocked out. I still love watching Laverne and Shirley plus Little House on the Prairie. I keep waiting for the Ingalls to pray at the local Walnut Grove mosque.

On any of the news channels, I don't care if host holds conservative, liberal, or social democratic views. I think that the best hosts are the ones that keep me guessing. They are the ones that encourage me to challenge my thinking. The problem with Sun News is that I already know what the hosts are going to say before they spew their drivel. None of their hosts have nothing new to add to the discussion about important issues. They spew "Harper--good, oil sands--good, environmentalists--bad; unions--bad, feminists--bad, Muslims--bad." The hosts preach. Unfortunately, they don't teach. They don't invite the viewers to question through critical thinking. I don't think Jesus would want to watch Sun News.

liberal supporter said...

The reason they continue to fund it is that they expect Kory Ternache (he of great broadcast experience at SunTV) to become the new CRTC commissioner when Finkenstein steps down.

Then they can finally get their Category 1 license requiring mandatory carriage on low channels, and force all cable and sats to pay their fee, like they wanted in the first place. They'll probably not even have to bother turning the CKXT transmitters back on.

rightprog said...

What's Sun Tv and who is this Ezra Lerant?

Reality Bites said...

Being high on the dial is a problem when your potential viewers can only count to 21 by taking off their shoes and dropping their pants.

Rev.Paperboy said...

they may not be high on the dial, but more than a few of them seem to high on something.