Monday, January 21, 2013

Sun News Network Begs For Taxpayer $

Application by TVA Group Inc. and Sun Media Corporation, partners in a general partnership carrying on business as Sun News General Partnership, for mandatory distribution on the digital and analog basic service pursuant to an order issued under section 9(1)(h) of the Broadcasting Act of the national English-language specialty national news Category C service Sun TV News.

As I have mentioned previously, I've heard from insiders that if they don't get mandatory carriage they're screwed, and indeed Steve Faguy says they are losing $17 mil a year and need 18 cents per subscriber per month  to get by.  That in mind, you can leave "an intervention" on this issue at the CRTC home page.  You will, I think, find plenty of material on the Sun News Network in the archives here at BCLSB that should help you craft your intervention.  Remember, when you are writing, that if this application fails, Ezra Levant will have to move back home to his dad's basement.

PS.  They are also demanding a better spot on the dial.

From their supporting docs:
Demographics (they've got angry old guy crowd sewn up):
Viewer numbers:
This might have to be my last update for awhile.  I'm laughing too hard.

13 comments:

Chris said...

Really? 13,000 viewers? Per what? Month? Day? I am waiting for them to make some 'market place of ideas' arguments now.

You'll be relieved to hear I'll be breathing normally all the while.

bigcitylib said...

That would be the daily average I would think.

Chris said...

That's astoundingly low. I can't believe they're admitting to that. What if their advertisers see that?

Jim Parrett said...

Wingnut welfare and begging - the right's specialties. No wonder the network only has 13K viewers. Who wants to watch a bunch of middle-aged whiners and pearl clutchers anyway? It would be sad if it wasn't so funny.

Holly Stick said...

Punching above their weight? More like waddling around trying to slap somebody and hitting themselves more often than not.

bigcitylib said...

What advertisers? Other than Dr. Ho...

Robert G. Harvie, Q.C. said...

Well, what a collection of free market capitalists we have here!

I don't watch SunTV as I'm cheap and instead choose to watch U.S. Hullu and Netflix..

But there is a certain hypocricy with Sun TV supporting socialist television, except, perhaps, for the fact that they are competing with networks who, uhm.. are funded by the government and who are also demanding mandatory distribution rights.

So.

Can I assume that everyone here would also object to CBC, CTV and Global being entitled to mandatory distribution?

Unknown said...

More than twice their viewership earns over 100K than low income. 88% percent of their viewers are not seniors. How did you come to your assessments?

bigcitylib said...

Robert, those stations are openly economic interventionalist. So for them it isn't hypocritical. For Sun it is.

Dana said...

You think responding to the SunTrolls is constructive dialogue do you?

Have you learned nothing from the past 12 years?

Hardy Weinberg said...

Just to clarify that 13,000 viewers is per week (not day or month) according to the y-axis of the graph. I plan to submit an intervention.

bigcitylib said...

I don't think so Harvey; all the numbers I have ever heard on this tend to be a daily average. But by all means submit. I plan to.

Reality Bites said...

Loss of analog coverage, I believe refers to when they had to shut down the over-the-air transmitter in Toronto that distibutors in the area were obliged to carry (the old SUN-TV).

Sun News was never authorized for analog distribution. No channel in the past ten years has been giving an analog license. The best they can hope for, without a massive violation of policy that could only mean gross political interference, is a category A license (must be distributed but not mandatory subscription) as opposed to its current category B (distributors don't have to carry).

They're asking for something that no longer exists as a matter of policy.