Canwest closes two, sells two, rebrands one
After putting the five conventional television stations comprising its secondary E! network (formerly CH) on the block for a “strategic review”, the results are in:
- CHCH Hamilton and CJNT Montreal will be sold to a company called Channel Zero for a grand total of $12.
- CHBC Kelowna (B.C.) will be brought into the Global network as a Global station (its local programming minimums being dropped from 13.5 hours a week to 7 will no doubt be taken advantage of here)
- CHEK Victoria and CHCA Red Deer (Alta.) will close on Aug. 31. CHEK couldn’t be turned into a Global station because of a CRTC rule that it not duplicate CHAN in Vancouver. CHCA is right between Calgary and Edmonton, both of which have Global stations.
Get the news from your favourite source:
- Canwest press release
- CBC
- Vancouver Sun (focusing on CHEK), plus piece from the archives on CHEK history
- Canadian Press
The decisions mean the end to the E!/CH network.
CTV closes one, sells one, keeps one
Meanwhile, after Shaw backed away from buying three CTV stations for $1, there is similar mixed news at those stations:
- CHWI Windsor will be kept on the air for at least another year, thanks to an infusion of funding
- CKX Brandon (Man.) will be sold for $1 (press release) to Bluepoint Investment Corp. (don’t ask me who that is), who may be looking to buy other TV properties
- CKNX Wingham (Ont.) will be shut down on Aug. 31 and converted into a retransmitter for CFPL London
This leaves six A-channel stations left, including CHWI and the cable-only Atlantic A network.
Is there a Canwest station in Montreal? I sometimes see ads from Montreal on Fox when I watch my Sunday “Animation Domination”, but where are they coming from?
Global Quebec (which will soon become Global Montreal).
Do you know when it will become Global Montreal?
I guess it would be official after Aug. 31, but the branding change can happen pretty well whenever they want.
last Wed.July 22/09, the floundering Canwest did some more layoffs which never made the headlines.
Departments affected were in Marketing, Specialty TV & Conventional, rumors swirling that more are to come on Aug.31/09.
all this happening while Leonards brother is buying a CFL stadium (???) & sister asking for more government money for their Human Rights museum. What have these Asper kids done to the Asper Empire?
Sir Fagstein,
what is the worst case scenario for Canwest?
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I poo out more Canadian content in one day than CTV and Global air combined in a year.
The Global buy up of CHBC seems fitting. Global National used to have an intro that flashed up all the places they cover, and it read something like: PARIS, MOSCOW, CAIRO, LONDON, KELOWNA, BERLIN….
They clearly think highly of the little burg. Or, they just realize that every two-to-three years they can set up camp for another giant “fire” story.