Canada's first right-wing 24-hour television news network was launched Monday promising to shake up Canadians' views on politics and the day's events.
But the Quebecor-owned Sun News Network assailed by critics as "Fox News North" continues to suffer from staffing slip-ups and still has not sorted out its distribution.
The specialty channel aims to "challenge the English Canadian TV news establishment," Quebec media mogul Pierre Karl Peladeau said last year when he unveiled plans for the network.
"Far too many Canadians are tuning out completely or changing their dials to American all-news channels," he said. "Quebecor sees an untapped market opportunity in English Canadian TV news."
Sun News Network said it would provide Canadians with "hard news" during the day, and opinion and analysis in evening broadcasts, or as its slogan touts "hard news and straight talk."
To promote its launch, news anchor Krista Erickson posed in a hockey jersey on the cover of affiliated Sun newspapers while Toronto Sun columnist Peter Worthington said it would "not to be intimidated by political correctness."
The specialty channel was the brainchild of Kory Teneycke, former spokesman for Canada's Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper who is currently waging a fierce reelection campaign against leftist parties.
It was launched through a partnership between Quebecor Media's two subsidiaries TVA Group and Sun Media Corporation, which operates a chain of tabloid newspapers in Canada.
Teneycke was forced to quit last September after courting controversy with jabs at leftist newsmen, describing the lot of Canadian news as "narrow, complacent, and politically correct."
At the time, the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) was also reviewing a license application from Sun News and had received a petition signed by 80,000 opponents of the new network.
TVA Group, which applied to reform one of its existing broadcast licenses for the Sun News channel, is still haggling with the federal regulator to air across the country.
For now, it is reportedly expected to reach up to 6.3 million households through a deal with cable companies Shaw and Videotron, competing with round-the-clock channels CTV and public broadcaster CBC.
Teneycke is now back with the network, but on the eve of its launch, it lost a high profile anchor.
As well, it continues to be attacked by critics as a right-wing mouthpiece and compared to the US Fox News channel.
Its premier broadcast at 4:30 pm (1930 GMT) was to feature Erickson hosting a half-hour "pre-game" show, followed by conservative author Ezra Levant dishing on Canada's broadcast regulations, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's election coverage and a chat with a Sun newspaper columnist.
No comments:
Post a Comment