"Fox News North" is actually Sun TV News

Pierre Karl Péladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., and Kory Teneycke, VP of Development for Quebecor Media Inc., unveil Sun TV News.

Pierre Karl Péladeau, the billionaire President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., unveiled Sun TV News today at the offices of the Toronto Sun. The new all-news network, which was first reported under with the nickname Fox News North, will launch in 2011. Much of the speculation about the new network, which Péladeau said would compete directly with CBC News Network and CTV News Channel, was confirmed in today's announcement.

Here are the details:

• Sun TV News will share resources and reporters with the Sun chain of newspapers and, as Péladeau put it, would have an emphasis on "strong personalities."
• The network will adopt a format of hard breaking news during the day and focus on talk, editorial, and opinion in the evening.
• Péladeau argued today that Canadians are ill-served by CBC News Network and CTV News Channel and are opting for American news networks instead.
• As expected, Kory Teneycke, the former chief spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, will head the new network. During the announcement today, he called Canada's existing all-news networks "narrow, complacent, and politically-correct."
• While obviously describing a new network that will be quite unique among the existing news networks, Teneycke rejected the "Fox News North" label, saying Sun TV News will offer "strong opinions and analysis" but will carry a range of points of view.
• Teneycke also answered the wave of editorial criticism facing the new network, saying it is "natural that our competitors should be worried."
• While a rumored figure of $100 Million was speculated as the Quebecor investment in the new network, neither Péladeau nor Teneycke would state the actual figure with Péladeau saying it would be "whatever is appropriate."

Read the full Quebecor press release announcing Sun TV News here.
Explore the new Sun TV News website.

Fox News North: further reading

Here are some supplements to the Fox News North story:

• The original CP article in the Toronto Star and the followup.
• A great editorial in the Toronto Star today by Christopher Dornan, Director of the Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs at Carleton University.
• An editorial by Tasha Kheiriddin in the National Post, a generally-conservative paper.
• An editorial by Dan Leger for The Chronicle Herald.

UPDATES TO FOLLOW

Fox News North: a story we should all be paying attention to

A press conference has been called by Quebecor Media Inc. for tomorrow where it is widely expected that Pierre Karl Peladeau, the billionaire media tycoon who heads Quebecor, will announce plans to launch a new cable news network in Canada modeled after the extremely provocative and extremely conservative Fox News Channel.

As first reported early last week by the Toronto Star, details have steadily been trickling out about plans for the new network, which Quebecor will only go as far as calling a "new investment in Canadian media."

Here is what is known:

• The "new investment" is a $100 MILLION joint venture between Quebecor Media Inc. and Sun Media Corp.
• Quebecor filed an application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission earlier this month.
• Quebecor has named Kory Teneycke, the former chief spokesperson for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, vice-president of development. After leaving his post in the Prime Minister's Office last July, Teneycke briefly worked as a Conservative pundit for CBC television.
• Luc Lavoie, the former chief spokesperson for former Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, will also re-join Quebecor.

Here are the rumors:

• Based on past statements by Teneycke, it is speculated that the new network would adopt a format and editorial style similar to that of the Fox News Channel in the United States. Teneycke has long called for a news network that would cater to a conservative-minded audience.
• CBC reporter Krista Erickson left her position today saying, in a memo to coworkers, that she was "leaving to pursue another opportunity." It is widely-speculated that she will be named to a top post in the new Quebecor network. Erickson is the girlfriend of Conservative MP for Calgary Centre Lee Richardson. She once got into trouble for feeding questions to a Liberal MP during committee hearings into the business relationship between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber.

There has been much more speculation, and a great deal of commentary on the alledged plans for the new network in the press today. One thing for sure is known: a new network based on the Fox model would be unprecedented in the history of Canadian politics and would surely have a profound effect on the political and journalistic climate in this country.

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Pierre Karl Peladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc.