The channel’s bids for special status show it’s not strong enough to face the marketplace without it

Source: Globe and Mail

That proposed Sun TV News channel, also known as Fox News North, sure has been getting a lot of free publicity. Here comes some more.

Margaret Atwood weighed in last week, signing a petition denouncing the possible arrival of the right-wing news outlet, but later qualified the move. Atwood explained she objected to the “process” of Sun TV News’ getting the cushy licence it has applied for which would oblige cable and satellite companies to offer it to customers as part of common channel packages.

Her suspicion, and that of others, is that Our Glorious Leader Stephen Harper is intent on manipulating our broadcasting regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), maybe nudging the CRTC boss aside, in order to ensure Sun TV News gets preferred status in the great Canadian TV racket. Such rumours of manipulation have been reported in this newspaper and other publications. As Atwood and others see it, this is the Long Form Census Flap all over again. A senior civil servant will be put in an untenable position, the government will get its way and it’s all very Banana Republic governance, with the Big Man in charge getting his way, the rules being tossed aside.

Well, whatever. Nothing has happened yet except, as Bill Roberts, president and CEO of Vision TV, pointed out last week, the Sun TV application to the CRTC seems to have been fast-tracked.

The really interesting thing all this shows about the proposed Fox New North is that, obviously, it is only viable if it is shoved down our throats. And that’s what the channel’s owner, Quebecor, has been aiming for from the start – a channel that is mandatory on cable or satellite so you couldn’t avoid the darn thing even if you wanted to. The first application, for “must-carry” status, was rejected by the CRTC, the proposed channel failing to quality under current CRTC guidelines.

Now its owners are applying for a “Category 2 specialty licence” and simultaneously asking for “mandatory access,” which essentially means it has to be presented as a choice in a minimum of one type of channel package. No such category of channel currently exists, so the Sun TV News people are, you know, chancing their arm here.

Put all the confusing regulatory language aside, ignore Atwood’s obfuscation, and you reach one conclusion – this thing can’t survive if it isn’t given preferential treatment. The fact is – and this should be blindingly clear to a right-wing news outfit – if there were a big demand from consumers, it would be a success without the special cable status it is manoeuvring to achieve.

There have not been torch-lit processions in Canada’s cities and towns demanding a local version of Fox News. Parliament Hill has not seen mass rallies. No silent vigils have been held outside CRTC offices. Mind you, there is a Facebook page for the proposed Sun TV News channel and 1,456 people “like” it. Just for comparison’s sake, I looked at one of three Facebook pages for Margaret Atwood and 25,431 people “like” it. This country being what it is, I can see a movement to demand an Atwood channel – all those movies based on Atwood novels and two seasons of The Atwood Stories airing around the clock. Plus, the author’s Tweets running in a ticker on the screen, 24-7. Listen, people, Ms. Atwood has 81,854 followers on Twitter. In the specialty-channel area of the Canadian TV racket, anything getting 81,854 viewers is arriving in Hitsville.

Anyway – no matter what manipulations are going on, there is, possibly, a genuine connection between the Sun TV News proposal and the Long Form Census farce. Hardly anybody actually complained about the census, but it got kicked round and derided by this government. Now, hardly anybody is crying out for a right-wing news channel, but there are genuine worries that it could get kicked onto the TV menu, pronto.

Bring it on, I’m saying. But let it be tested by the marketplace, not shoved down our throats.

© Globe and Mail