REGINA – The Saskatchewan government has pulled the plug on the province’s public educational broadcaster SCN after nearly 20 years on the air.
Some of SCN’s assets – such as satellite distance education classes, broadcast of the Legislative channel, and connectivity to the provincial public safety telecommunications network, will be transferred to SaskTel this Spring, but the SCN Corporation is scheduled to shut down by May.
"SCN provided many important services and we are ensuring those continue," said Tourism, Parks, Culture and Sport Minister Dustin Duncan, in a statement. "The broadcast industry has changed drastically since SCN was created nearly 20 years ago. This was long before things like the Internet and specialty channels were prevalent in our society. In addition, SCN’s viewership is quite low, and we feel that there is no longer a role for government in the broadcast business."
The most recent BBM survey indicates that only 4% of respondents viewed SCN for at least 15 minutes in any given week, and low viewership has been consistent over the past six years, the announcement said. The savings to government with the dissolution of SCN will be $2.4 million in the 2010-11 budget year, while the annualized savings will be closer to $5 million.
About 35 employees will be impacted by the closure. Some of those employees will remain in their positions until the end of June to deal with outstanding contracts, while some are expected to move over to SaskTel.
A team will explore potential buyers for the broadcast assets, including the CRTC license.
