Saskatchewan's public television network was a casualty of the provincial budget.

 

The government announced that they will be winding down operations of the Saskatchewan Communications Network.

 

Dustin Duncan, the Minister Responsible for SCN, says core operations, including distance education programming, will be moved to SaskTel.  The Education and Advanced Education ministries will work with the Crown Corporation to ensure that distance learning continues.

 

However, the SCN TV channel, which is on cable and satellite networks across Saskatchewan and Canada, will be shut down this spring.  The broadcast assets and CRTC license are up for sale.

 

Duncan says the decision to close the channel was made because very few people actually watched it, and because the broadcast landscape has changed drastically since the channel started nearly 20 years ago.  He says, back at that time, a cable or satellite service would have 20 or 30 channels, and today people are getting their information and news from a variety of sources, including Internet and video on demand, and there are now so many specialty channels to choose from.