Quebecor’s launch of Sun TV News on target

Quebecor Media Inc.’s Sun TV News channel is expected to receive carriage with the major broadcasting distributors by its launch deadline of March 31, industry sources say. Several senior industry sources told The Wire Report in background interviews that major television distributors Shaw Communications Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc., and Telus Communications Co., have little reason not to carry the channel. Unless there are serious disagreements about the fees distributors will receive for carrying the channel, industry sources say Sun TV News is expected to launch on all or most television distribution systems before the end of March. “We’re still planning to launch during the first quarter of 2011,” Serge Sasseville, vice-president of corporate and institutional affairs at Quebecor, said in a brief interview. “I don’t have the exact date for the launch, but it will be before March 31.” Quebecor had originally planned to launch the channel in January 2011, but last fall rescheduled it for March. Although Quebecor is a competitor to other broadcasting distributors, it is also a major Canadian broadcasting player. Its new Sun TV News Channel will be thrown in with the bargaining chips in carriage negotiations, sources say. Senior industry sources said that the major broadcasting distributors welcome another news channel and that some distributors may want to boost their television subscription news packages by adding the channel. “I don’t think carriage will be a big issue,” one industry source said. National controversy about Sun TV News emerged last year when Quebecor applied to the CRTC for a three-year mandatory carriage licence, which would have required broadcasting distributors to offer the channel to subscribers. The licence application led to suggestions of political favoritism and support for a right-leaning, all-news network that observers dubbed “Fox News North.” The company bills the channel as one that will offer “hard news and straight talk.” The CRTC does not award mandatory carriage licences for competitive broadcasting genres like news and sports, and Kory Teneycke, a former senior staffer to Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper, was hired by Quebecor to spearhead the project. But last October, Quebecor dropped its request for mandatory carriage, and asked instead for a Category 2 licence, a standard specialty licence under which the company will have to negotiate carriage agreements with distributors. The CRTC quickly approved the Category 2 application. But Carriage of Sun TV News will depend on how much the distributors take home in the arrangements. Although industry sources do not doubt that Sun TV News will receive carriage, they caution that distributors will want to fetch their desired price for the channel. Sun TV News’ main competitors will be CBC NN and CTV News Channel. In 2009, CBC NN generated revenues of $48.69 million from cable and $15.89 million from satellite from a total of 10.648 million subscribers. The channel’s total revenue, including advertising, was $79.1 million. The same year, CTV News Channel generated revenues of $11.13 million from cable and $3.54 million from satellite from a total of 8.5 million subscribers. Its total revenue, including advertising, was about $23 million. One industry source said the success of Sun TV News may depend on how long Quebecor is willing to operate the service at a loss. Two sources said it could take as much as five years to establish a strong brand and demand for the channel. But they also point out that significant demand for the channel may already be in play. The controversy over Quebecor’s initial application generated national interest in the service well before it has launched. At the height of the controversy last October, international advocacy group Avaaz delivered more than 21,000 hard copy letters to the CRTC’s offices in Gatineau, Que., opposing the licence application for Sun TV News. But the channel also has many supporters, who welcome a conservative news option. Ian Morrison, a spokesman for watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, said there is not necessarily a relationship between public interest in a channel and a distributors’ agreement to carry it. “What happens is a kind of quid pro quo: ‘We’ll carry this for you if you do something for us,’” he said. sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Quebecor’s launch of Sun TV News on target

News | 01/27/2011 10:54 pm EST

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