On the eve of the upcoming "Freedom Weekend" in February, hosted by Sun News Network personality Ezra Levant, questions are being raised as to how many people they've managed to attract to the event and who exactly is watching the channel.
Openfile.ca is reporting that Twitter comments (of the event) "were almost uniformly dismissive, and generally quite condescending."
Of course at $1,200 per person for a weekend spent with personalities of a news channel that's just to the right of Attila the Hun and less than a year old, the derision shouldn't come as a surprise.
Meanwhile, Openfile contacted veteran entertainment journalist and former Sun Media TV columnist Bill Brioux to try and understand the numbers behind the news channel.
According to Brioux (who has access to the BBM Canada viewership numbers), Sun News viewers are "miniscule".
"Very few Canadians watch Sun News Network. A look at the BBM Canada overnight, estimated ratings for [Wednesday, Dec. 28], showed that their highest rated show was The Source with Ezra Levant at 10 p.m. with 38,000 viewers across Canada. ByLine with Brian Lilley at 9 pulled 35,000. Only 5,000 and 6,000 of those viewers were between 25 and 54, across Canada. There are more people, on any given night, in a mall in Toronto," says Brioux.
Brioux also suggests that "The vast majority of the few viewers SNN does get are way over 50, outside the demo advertisers want. So SNN draws enough on a nightly basis to fill a senior's mall."
Ouch!
Brioux's interpretation of the numbers indicate that the network's other shows are doing even worse:
"Beyond Lilley and Levant's shows—the two highest rated SNN offerings by far—everything else stiffs," says Brioux. "Charles Adler has bombed from the beginning, drawing 8,000 at 8 p.m. and 2,000 at 11 p.m. on the 28th—and zero in the 25—54 demographic both hours, across Canada."
Despite their less-than-stellar viewership numbers, SNN at least has some glimmers of hope - they are able to draw on journalists and stories from their newspapers and seem to relish in creating controversy that other media outlets report on.
(The Mark News file photo)
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