Mark Wihak, assistant professor of media production at the University of Regina, seeks support to avoid closure of SCN television.
On March 24, without consultation, the Saskatchewan government announced it was closing down the Saskatchewan Communications Network.
SCN, which has served the people of Saskatchewan for 20 years and brings Saskatchewan stories to the province and the world, is scheduled to leave the airways at the end of April. It has been Saskatchewan’s broadcast voice, the only broadcaster whose programming focuses on the province: rural, small town and urban Saskatchewan.
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In making the closure announcement, the government cited the need to tighten its belt and low viewership. Neither of these reasons holds up to scrutiny. Indeed, one of the truly perplexing things about this decision is that Saskatchewan will actually lose money by closing SCN.
The government states it will save $2.5 million in 2010 and around $5 million annually in subsequent years by shutting down SCN. To give some context about government expenditures, the government spent more on two weeks of hospitality at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics than it spends each year on SCN.
What do we get for our $5 million investment in SCN? We get programming for and about Saskatchewan that no other broadcaster will provide. We get distance education classes to every corner of the province. And we get investment money from outside the province that far surpasses the total dollar amount that Saskatchewan spends to run SCN, investment that creates jobs in Saskatchewan.
SCN is one of the key elements in the Saskatchewan TV/film industry, which has seen impressive growth over the past 15 years. SCN’s support of Saskatchewan productions helps trigger investment from outside the province that significantly surpasses what Saskatchewan spends to run SCN.
This investment comes from a range of sources such the Canadian Media Fund, which allocated almost $1million to SCN in 2010 for investment in Saskatchewan productions. That money will no longer be coming into Saskatchewan.
An even larger source of investment comes in the form of broadcast licences from national broadcasters, whose licence fees far exceed that of SCN.
The government’s decision to close SCN is going to cost the people of Saskatchewan far more in lost investment from outside the province than was being spent to run SCN, money that was used to employ Saskatchewan labour and pay for services from Saskatchewan companies.
The government’s claim that it was shutting down SCN because of low ratings also does not hold up to scrutiny. SCN’s viewing numbers compare favourably with other Canadian broadcasters.
The minister responsible for SCN, Dustin Duncan, stated SCN’s viewing statistics had not changed over the past six years.
In the past six years, dozens of new TV channels have become available and recent studies indicate that people spend more time on the internet than watching TV. For a broadcaster to hold onto its audience numbers over this period of unprecedented change to the broadcast industry is extraordinary. It is proof that SCN provides programming unavailable elsewhere.
In a multi-channel universe, SCN was the only broadcaster committed to providing informative, family oriented programming from and about Saskatchewan.
What will we lose when SCN goes off the air? We will lose money coming into the province that creates jobs and purchases services from Saskatchewan businesses. We will lose our ability to produce and see Saskatchewan stories from Abbey to Zenon Park.
We will lose one of the province’s finest ambassadors. SCN productions have been purchased by broadcasters around the world and SCN’s broadcasts are picked up on satellite across North America.
And we will lose our trained and emerging talent.
I work with young filmmakers and I’ve been able to tell them that Saskatchewan was a good place for them because SCN was supportive of emerging filmmakers and made it possible to have a sustainable, profitable TV industry in the province.
Without SCN, I fear they will need to relocate to provinces that understand the economic and social importance of the cultural industries.
Hasn’t Saskatchewan reached a point where we can actually hold onto our talented young people?
If you think that the closure of SCN is a bad decision, there is still time for the government to reverse it.
