A sad day for Canadian Documentary content: Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) being shut down
With regret, I write to inform you that Saskatchewan’s Communication Network (SCN) will be shutting down in May.
REGINA — After nearly 20 years on the air, Saskatchewan Communications Network (SCN) is being brought to an end in May.
The dissolution of the SCN Corporation is expected to save government $2.4 million in the 2010-11 budget year and an estimated $5 million yearly. Reporter Heather Polischuk will have the story.
SCN was one of the few broadcasters in Canada that commissioned and carried local documentary films. I hope this does not compromise any of the doc producers who received license fees from them for their projects, e.g. PTV’s Inside Disaster.
Categories: general, television
closes, documentaries, local television, production, scn
I am very disappointed to read that SCN [Saskatchewan Communications Network]
is forced to – very likely – shut down in May of 2010, because the Government can not afford the money to keep it alive.
I understand that the Conservative Government of Stephen Harper is also making every effort to shut down these provincially owned and operated Networks.
I have voiced my opinion already, that I find it a sham that Provinces are not allowed to have their own Communications Networks, which are so necessary to inform people, to have support in the Arts and particularly helping young people to get started in the world of Communication, etc.
Thanks for writing about SCN.
I am a former employee (as of last week) and was shocked to see that they decided to shut the entire operation down, especially since the economic narrative simply does not hold water.
The government claimed that the closure would save the province $5 million, but since the distance education and internet via satellite services provided by SCN will, in some capacity, still be provided by SaskTel, they’ll still have to fund it. Only now, they have to pay to have the equipment dismantled, moved, and set back up at SaskTel, instead of leaving it where it was.
This excuse also ignored the money drawn into the province through a portion of that funding, that which SCN invested in content creation.
I was proud to be a part of SCN’s revamped broadcast operation, since it was the most innovative and efficient broadcast stream in the country (second of its kind in N. America), and I got to see it from the ground up. All content was stored digitally, doing away with the need for a massive tape library. We received tapes, ingested the material, and sent them right back to the producers. (Or in some cases, pulled shows right off the portable hard-drives provided by the producers)
I think this had more to do with politics and the particular ideology of the current party in power, the rebranded Devine Conservatives, now called the SaskParty. (Incidentally, they just spent just over $21 thousand to run banner ads in Canadian websites that read “Balanced. Forward-Looking. Responsible” , in reference to their view of the budget, accompanied by a Gov’t of Sasktchewan logo)
They silenced one of the few remaining alternatives to the highly-concentrated and tightly-controlled corporate press, and silenced a voice that often dealt with issues such as social justice, climate change, the dangers of corporate influence and unregulated capitalism, globalisation, etc. subjects most often ignored by the business-owned press.
I’ll be very sad to see it fade to black on the 30th of April …