Sun News Network, Canada’s only openly right-of-center news channel, will cease broadcasting early Friday morning, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation revealed. Launched in 2011 by media mogul Pierre-Karl Péladeau, it had trouble attracting audiences. About 200 people will be without a job.
Supporters of the channel complain that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (the Canadian FCC) did not put it on par with other similar channels. But CTV News reports that the CRTC said that Sun News did not meet the criteria to be a “compulsory” channel in 2013. It stated in its refusal that “Sun News did not clearly demonstrate how its service would make an exceptional contribution to the objectives of the Act”, i.e. the Broadcasting Act that regulates all airwaves in Canada.
The CRTC also added that “the applicant did not demonstrate that the service is making exceptional commitments to original, first-run Canadian programming in terms of exhibition and expenditures, as required by the Policy.” In other words, it didn’t completely met the obligation to run its quota of Canadian content as required by law.