Quebecor Media Invests in New English Canadian TV News Channel
June 15 2010 - 11:00AM
Marketwired
Pierre Karl Peladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., Quebecor
Media Inc. and Sun Media Corporation, today announced that Quebecor
Media, through a partnership between its two subsidiaries TVA Group
and Sun Media Corporation, will be challenging the English Canadian
TV news establishment by investing in a new hard news/straight talk
English specialty channel called SUN TV NEWS.
"Far too many Canadians are tuning out completely or changing
their dials to American all-news channels. They're opting out or
switching over. That's not good for Canadian television. It's not
good for Canadian democracy. And it's not good for Canada itself,"
said Mr. Peladeau in making the announcement. "Quebecor sees an
untapped market opportunity in English Canadian TV news. We see an
opportunity in offering Canadians something new, something better,
something distinct. It is time to shake up the current players of
the Canadian broadcasting system. It's time for a new choice, a new
voice. It's time for SUN TV NEWS."
Television remains a vital source of news and information for
Canadians. And all-news specialty services play a vital role in
keeping Canadians well informed on a minute-by-minute, hour-by-hour
basis and ensuring that news coverage is both broad and deep.
However, being well informed means more than being exposed to dry
news. SUN TV NEWS proposes to go beyond the obvious day-by-day
headlines and to cover the full range of stories that impact our
society, our democracy and our economy.
"CBC News Network and CTV News Channel have had respectively 21
and 13 years to get it right and they've failed to win over
viewers. Canadian TV news today is narrow, complacent, and
politically correct," added Kory Teneycke, Vice President,
Development of Quebecor Media. "SUN TV NEWS will be different from
the all-news channel format we know all too well in Canada. It will
offer Canadians an attractive mixture of "hard news" reporting
during the day and "straight talk" opinion journalism at night.
This will not be another network catering to elite opinion and
ignoring stories important to many Canadians."
The hard news/straight talk formula is a proven recipe for
success. The French-language all-news specialty service LCN saw its
ratings more than triple when it moved toward that formula just
three years ago. Today, LCN is not only a commercial success, but
it has re-energized news coverage for French-speaking viewers;
providing them with a new choice and a new voice that previously
had been absent in the French-language news broadcasting space.
On June 1st, 2010, TVA Group, on behalf of a partnership to be
constituted between TVA Group and Sun Media Corporation, submitted
an application with the Canadian Radio-Television and
Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for a three (3) year Category
1 Specialty TV license for SUN TV NEWS to replace the over the air
Sun TV station in Toronto. The application is under review.
Quebecor Media Inc. is a subsidiary of Quebecor Inc. (TSX:
QBR.A)(TSX: QBR.B), a communications company with operations in
North America, Europe and Asia. Quebecor Media owns operating
companies in numerous media-related businesses: Videotron Ltd., an
integrated communications company engaged in cable television,
interactive multimedia development, Internet access services, cable
telephony and wireless telephone service; Sun Media Corporation,
the largest publisher of newspapers in Canada; Canoe.ca., operator
of a network of English and French language Internet properties in
Canada; Quebecor Media Network, provider of flyer printing and
distribution services; TVA Group Inc., operator of the largest
French language over the air television network in Quebec, a number
of specialty channels, and the English language over the air
station Sun TV; Nurun Inc., a major interactive technologies and
communications agency with offices in Canada, the United States,
Europe and Asia; magazine publisher TVA Publishing Inc.; book
publishers and distributors Sogides Group Inc. and CEC Publishing
Inc.; Archambault Group Inc. and TVA Films, companies engaged in
the production, distribution and retailing of cultural products; Le
SuperClub Videotron ltee, a DVD and console game rental and retail
chain; and Quebecor MediaPages, publisher of print and online
directories.
Contacts: J. Serge Sasseville Vice-President, Corporate and
Institutional Affairs Quebecor Media Inc. 514-380-1864
serge.sasseville@quebecor.com
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