TORONTO and OTTAWA – Quebecor’s rumoured new national news service could be revealed as early as Tuesday morning. Or, as we suspect, it will be a piece of a larger announcement from the broadcasting, publishing and cable giant.
What is known is that Pierre Karl Péladeau, president and CEO of Quebecor, Quebecor Media, and Sun Media is scheduled to make an announcement at the Toronto Sun’s offices in Toronto on Tuesday “in regard to new investment in Canadian media”.
A report in the Globe and Mail says that the company will invest approximately $100-million over five years on a channel modelled on the Fox News network, a highly profitable channel in the U.S. and the leading cable channel devoted to 24-hour news.
But what this report, and the numerous others it has spawned, fails to take in to account is BDU carriage. It has none, yet. And that’s a pretty big consideration. Without carriage, all that would be wasted money and Canadian BDUs have told Cartt.ca in the past few days that no one from Quebecor has approached them to talk carriage of any new channel.
That has led to industry speculation that the company plans to make a lot more of its moribund Toronto broadcast outlet (and must-carry in Southern Ontario at least) SunTV.
Or, with the application the company has apparently made to the CRTC for a new channel yet to be made public, the company may have other plans.
Whatever the announcement is, which we’re assuming is going to involve the newspaper chain and likely cover all platforms of delivery, Cartt.ca will be there in the morning.
More to come.
