Several of the earlier posts suggested few Canadians watch FNC compared to CNN. Well, we were spoon-fed CNN from "Day 1". It was often included in basic packages originally and carriers did not rush to offer FNC and when they did, made it difficult and add-on expense for viewers, so many people would just bypass it. As time passed, FNC grew in prominence and as many have posted here. It is the #1 Cable News network in the USA by healthy margin. However, CNN is still treated as "king" up here. Had the Cable TV providers made FNC as readily available as CNN - or (OH! the horror of it - LOL) put FNC on the position of CNN (readily available) and relegated CNN to the background, then more Canadians would be watching. Unfortunately, FNC and CNN have never been on a level playing field in Canada, including both general availability and format.
After reading through this thread, I see that quite recently, Rogers changed the delivery to HD. But it does seem odd as I am not a ROGERS customer where I live (my parents live in K-W) - that there is not a separate channel for the SD broadcast and the HD. I am used to seeing both HD and SD version channels (not only when I have been in a Rogers home, but on our Cogeco service in Halton).
I did inquire at Cogeco about FNC in HD and after an escalation, I was told that it wasn't made available by FOX in HD outside the USA. Now this also seemed odd to me as why wouldn't FOX want the best broadcast version of their channel out there for customers to watch? I also tried to contact someone at FOX NEWS CORP to inquire about this, but couldn't figure out how or who to email and did not reach anyone knowing something on the phone and just let it drop. This was last year (2017) sometime I believe.
If ROGERS is indeed broadcasting FNC in real HD, then Cogeco was feeding me BS. In my experience, COGECO has always been behind ROGERS in channel offerings (they were way behind in adding FNC and other new channels years ago, and also always played catch-up in the number of HD channels offered).
Unfortunately, cable providers have a geographic monopoly and I cannot choose to go with ROGERS. I could choose to go with BELL FIBE TV, but I don't believe they have FNC in HD either - well they might now, but not a year or more ago.
And if I may return to FNC, it is my experience that many Canadians have a distorted idea and opinion of FNC, and many of them have not watched it (they don't have it or didn't for many years), so the opinion comes from CNN watching or reading left-leaning articles and such. Of course FNC has several shows and hosts who are conservative and present that viewpoint. Just like CNN has liberal hosts. However, FNC has always been more balanced in terms of guest commentators and debate than I have seen in recent years on CNN. Fox often has 1-on-1 debates and discussions, but I usually notice a 4 or 5, and even 6 to 1 ratio on CNN panels when I "drop in" to see what they might be doing.
I also find that CTV New Channel spends a lot of time Trump bashing and often when I look to watch some Canadian news, I find Trump Administration is the topic. They seem to do plenty of CNN "me-tooing" when not covering Canadian news. And of course, they always just find some professor from the University of Nowhere to Skype in and join the chorus. I do not subscribe to CBC News nor MSNBC.
So, I do agree with others that we ought to have a balance of news sources, but it seems the cable providers want to direct customers a certain way, or the past history of availability has made it so. The one attempt to have a more conservative news channel here in Canada failed abysmally, but at least someone tried.
What I think we really lack here in Canada, is the type of debate and discussions that occur on the non-pure news shows in the US. They will discuss political issues of the day. One current issue here in Canada recently has been the dairy cartels and how that costs consumers huge mark-ups and so forth and it has been a constant bone of contention in international trade negotiations, including NAFTA. So, why isn't there a show or forums to have more detailed background information and debate on this matter? Yes, there have been several articles in the press, but nothing like this gets covered in detail as happens in the USA. CTV News could be doing a better job informing and educating Canadian public on the issues we have. Same thing could have been done more with cannibis and the list goes on. Instead, I find after watching CTV News Channel for a short while, they are simply repeating the same thing I just saw. Yes, this happens on CNN/FNC, but they have more enriched content.
Okay, stepping down from soap box.
