$25M TV budget?

A TSF reader sent a link to this missed lengthy September blog posting by Montreal's prolific Fagstein media watchdog re the Sun TV News CRTC application:

The posting could be outdated as it refers to Tory Kory at the helm, but here is what Fagstein says about the proposed budget for Sun Media's national television debut:

"But while their goal is to replicate Fox News, I think the more likely scenario is that Sun TV News will be an experiment in cheap newsgathering that will quickly become a laughing stock because of its horribly small budget. 

"According to the CRTC application, the channel plans to have a budget of about $25 million, of which $15 million would go to programming and technical costs. Though it's hard to directly compare this to CBC and CTV, since they take advantage of their local stations and national newscasts (I'm trying hard not to use the word "synergies" here), it's still very little money. 

"We're looking at a staff of maybe 100 people, including journalists, anchors, producers and technicians, advertising salespeople, marketers, etc. Anyone who thinks he can run a national news network on that kind of budget is probably kidding himself.

"The feared scenario, that they'll spend little money on news budget and focus all their efforts on opinion, makes more sense considering how little they have to spend. But even then, the big-name blowhards come at a high price, and a $25 million total budget isn't enough to get a Canadian Glenn Beck on the air if you want anything more than a webcam and laptop in front of him."

Exactly. 

PKP cannot expect to have Sun TV News succeed on the cheap.