Sun News Network will go dark on Friday following a fruitless search for a buyer.
With mounting financial losses, there was no alternative to closing the network, The Huffington Post Canada has learned. Sun Media Corp. spent months actively seeking a potential buyer but found no party capable of taking over the channel.
An official announcement will be made Friday morning when it will already be off air.
The company said the outcome is not its desired goal and that it tried everything it could in the past four years to create an audience base large enough to turn a profit, but the obstacles it faced were insurmountable. The company will lay off an estimated 200 employees, but the exact number has yet to be confirmed at this time.
Parent company Quebecor Media had been in talks to sell the network to media mogul Moses Znaimer's Zoomer Media, which also owns specialty TV channels, radio stations, Zoomer magazine and digital properties, according to several reports.
But that deal has apparently fallen through.
The Canadaland media blog reported the network was on a “death watch” in late January, citing employees who said Quebecor could choose to dissolve the network within two months if the sale failed.
Quebecor could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Canadaland reported the deal failed because the two sides could not reach an agreement over severance packages for Sun executives.
Reports of Sun’s closure have been swirling since October when its parent company Quebecor announced it was selling its Sun Media portfolio of 175 newspapers, including the flagship Sun newspapers, that were feeding the television network much of its content.
Quebecor told The Huffington Post Canada at the time concerns related to the channel's long-term viability and questions about its operations would not be answered until after sale of the newspapers is final.
Senior Conservative sources told HuffPost that Sun News Network vice-president Kory Teneycke wanted to re-launch the channel and was looking for investors to spin it off from Quebecor.
Sun News Network, known for its blend of news and right-leaning opinion, has its own stable of reporters and commentators but it also relied on Sun newspapers to share content with the TV station through Quebecor’s QMI wire service.
The Quebecor sale, which must still be approved by the CRTC, also forced the network to stop using the Sun branding after one year.
Sun News has lost nearly $20 million on a yearly basis since it launched in 2011. It has struggled to build viewers with limited distribution to 40 per cent of Canadian households. The network has previously argued its growth was disadvantaged because it was buried in higher channels, blaming the reluctance of cable and satellite carriers for their role in its low ratings.
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With mounting financial losses, there was no alternative to closing the network, The Huffington Post Canada has learned. Sun Media Corp. spent months actively seeking a potential buyer but found no party capable of taking over the channel.
An official announcement will be made Friday morning when it will already be off air.
The company said the outcome is not its desired goal and that it tried everything it could in the past four years to create an audience base large enough to turn a profit, but the obstacles it faced were insurmountable. The company will lay off an estimated 200 employees, but the exact number has yet to be confirmed at this time.
Parent company Quebecor Media had been in talks to sell the network to media mogul Moses Znaimer's Zoomer Media, which also owns specialty TV channels, radio stations, Zoomer magazine and digital properties, according to several reports.
But that deal has apparently fallen through.
The Canadaland media blog reported the network was on a “death watch” in late January, citing employees who said Quebecor could choose to dissolve the network within two months if the sale failed.
Quebecor could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Canadaland reported the deal failed because the two sides could not reach an agreement over severance packages for Sun executives.
Reports of Sun’s closure have been swirling since October when its parent company Quebecor announced it was selling its Sun Media portfolio of 175 newspapers, including the flagship Sun newspapers, that were feeding the television network much of its content.
Quebecor told The Huffington Post Canada at the time concerns related to the channel's long-term viability and questions about its operations would not be answered until after sale of the newspapers is final.
Senior Conservative sources told HuffPost that Sun News Network vice-president Kory Teneycke wanted to re-launch the channel and was looking for investors to spin it off from Quebecor.
Sun News Network, known for its blend of news and right-leaning opinion, has its own stable of reporters and commentators but it also relied on Sun newspapers to share content with the TV station through Quebecor’s QMI wire service.
The Quebecor sale, which must still be approved by the CRTC, also forced the network to stop using the Sun branding after one year.
Sun News has lost nearly $20 million on a yearly basis since it launched in 2011. It has struggled to build viewers with limited distribution to 40 per cent of Canadian households. The network has previously argued its growth was disadvantaged because it was buried in higher channels, blaming the reluctance of cable and satellite carriers for their role in its low ratings.
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