Canada’s telecom regulator handed Sun News Network a partial victory on Thursday, announcing new rules for cable and satellite providers that will require them to offer the struggling news network to all subscribers.
The decision does not amount to what’s known as “mandatory carriage” — cable and satellite providers won’t have to offer it as part of their basic cable service, as Sun News had requested in an application to the CRTC that was rejected earlier this year.
Many consumers complained that they did not want to pay for a news channel they don't intend to watch. That will not happen under the CRTC's new rules.
“These challenges were the sign of a systemic problem regarding the distribution of Canadian national news services on fair and commercially reasonable terms. The CRTC has acted quickly to address these challenges.”
While that’s good news for Sun Media, which had complained that some TV providers weren’t even offering its channel, it's unclear if it will be enough to immediately reverse the network's flagging fortunes.
The network had argued in CRTC hearings earlier this year that not being made a part of basic cable would be a “death sentence.” It noted that the CBC and CTV news channels enjoyed mandatory carriage in their early years. Neither of those channels are mandatory carriage today, though CBC’s French service is mandatory in English Canada, and vice versa.
The new rules come into effect on May 18, 2014.
Sun News History
Under pressure?(01 of12)
Open Image Modal'Stop Fox News North'(02 of12)
Open Image ModalSoros Threatens To Sue(03 of12)
Open Image ModalArt attack!(04 of12)
Open Image ModalSun News vs. CBC(05 of12)
Open Image ModalSun News has made the CBC's public funding a signature issue, repeatedly attacking the network for taking $1 billion per year in taxpayers' money while competing against private-sector broadcasters.But the CBC is fighting back. It put out a press release noting that Quebecor, Sun's parent company, enjoyed $500 million in subsidies over five years, and argued that -- unlike the CBC -- it is not publicly accountable to taxpayers. (credit:The Canadian Press)
'Chinga tu madre'(06 of12)
Open Image ModalFake Citizenship Ceremony(07 of12)
Open Image ModalIn your home, like it or not?(08 of12)
Open Image ModalMillions in losses(09 of12)
Open Image Modal'The Jew vs. the Gypsy'(10 of12)
Open Image ModalSun News personality and well-known right-wing pundit Ezra Levant issued a formal, on-air apology after a September, 2012, segment in which he declared that the Roma were not a race, and were rather "a shiftless group of hobos" who "rob people blind" and whose "chief economy is theft and begging."The Toronto police reportedly even launched a hate-crimes investigation into the segment, at the request of a local Roma group. (credit:Screencap)
Denied Mandatory Carriage(11 of12)
Open Image ModalIn August 2013, the CRTC, Canada's telecom regulator, rejected Sun News' application for mandatory carriage. The network had asked the CRTC to make them a mandatory part of all basic cable services, arguing it would not survive financially without it.Though the CRTC rejected the Sun News application, it also launched a review of the rules surrounding cable news networks. Among the possible outcomes are a realignment of channels so all news channels are grouped together on the dial, and the possibility of a "must-carry" order for Sun News, which would mean that all TV service providers would have to at least offer the network.Pictured: CRTC Chair Jean-Pierre Blais (credit:Canadian Press)
Goodbye, Sun News(12 of12)
Open Image ModalOn Friday, Feb. 13, 2015, Sun News went off the air, less than four years after its debut broadcast. Sun News personalities blamed the failure on the CRTC's decision not to grant the network mandatory carriage, and on cable companies' reluctance to give the network prominent placement on the dial, but analysts said the network's poor ratings and annual losses were the driving factor in the decision.