CEOs and business leaders on the COMPAS business panel were asked about the proposed Sun News channel—dubbed “Fox News North” by the current media—and its inspiration, the U.S.-based Fox News channel.

A more than two-thirds majority (71%) have seen the U.S. Fox News channel at least once or twice. More than a third of these—37%--either watch U.S. Fox News channel often or would do so if they had greater access.

For Sun News (“Fox News North”), this is good news, at least among a narrow business segment. The share of panelists who do or would watch U.S. Fox News and could potentially switch to Sun News is immense given that a relatively small portion of the viewing public watches all-news programming.

At least some of the appetite for Sun News derives from misgivings about the current menu of options in Canada, as reflected in the following verbatims:

I am very pleased with this [Sun News] proposition. I am not a fan of CBC News in particular. I do not trust them to bring balance to the news in any way. Their concept of balance is to find a malcontent with an opposing point of view and portray them as being qualified to speak on the subject when they rarely are.

Canada desperately needs a Fox News.

A great idea, won’t work as well as in the U.S….[The] CBC…needs balance.

Due to the left wing bias in the present news reporting it will be interesting to have two points of view presented and to have the people decide issues based on the presentation.

According to members of the COMPAS business panel, the big winners from Sun News will be social conservatives because the proposed channel will likely give them part of the channel’s platform and journalists because their job opportunities will multiply. Business interests will be unlikely to benefit.

View / Download complete poll in PDF