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| Not Sun News’ morning man Pat Bolland |
The Sun News Network celebrated its first anniversary April 18. I guess my party invite got lost in the mail.
The Quebecor venture lurched back onto the radar a few weeks ago when they were ringside for Justin Trudeau’s “Thrilla on the Hilla” in Ottawa. Otherwise things have been unusually quiet over on what was once mega-hyped as “Fox News North.”
A year to the day Sun News launched, a BBM Canada ratings report revealed that the station languishes well behind its cursed “State broadcaster” mortal enemy CBC News Network. BBM says it brings in only 0.1% of Canadian television viewers, compared to CBC NN (1.4%), CNN (0.9%) and CTV News Network (0.8%).
Funny, because, years ago, the station that used to occupy Sun News’ old Toronto spot, channel 15, was called Toronto1, or “Toronto 0.1” by the ad sales guys. Plus ca change…
Sun News doesn’t occupy channel 15 anymore, it’s on numbers like 1531 on Bell Fibe TV, or channel 663 Eastlink, which is, well, why it is stuck at 0.1%.
The U.S.-based Media Matters for America has a story up on “The First Year Flop of Fox News North.” I’m quoted in it, along with a fella named John Doyle. You can read the entire story here.
Writer Alexander Zaitchik suggests the network is best known for its “club-and-grunt ambush interviews” as well as for morning show host “Pat Bolland’s Rollie Fingers moustache.”
Fingers was an ace reliever for the World Champion Oakland A’s team of the early ’70s–back when me and Bolland were students together at Michael Power High School in Etobicoke. I’m pretty sure he didn’t have the ‘stache back then.
