Montreal: CanWest Global Communications has promised to spend $84.3 million to broadly improve Canadian tv. The benefits (12.18% of the transaction price) are part of a proposed $800-million takeover of assets held by WIC Western International Communications.

CanWest’s plans include the sale of wic’s interest in Montreal ctv-affiliate cfcf and ckvu in Vancouver while keeping bctv and chek in Victoria, and the re-orientation of chek and ontv in Hamilton, Ont.

In the wic takeover deal, subject of a crtc hearing April 25, CanWest acquires tv stations in Calgary, Edmonton, Lethbridge and Red Deer, and extends its national reach from 79% to 88%. CanWest also picks up interests in specialty channel robtv, multilingual station cjnt and the Television Quatre Saisons network (30%) in Quebec.

CanWest ceo Leonard Asper will ask the crtc to waive its policy of disallowing ownership of more than one tv station per market, otherwise he says chch and chek ‘would become orphan stations.’

Asper indicated cfcf is ‘worth about $53 million,’ while in ckvu’s case, ‘the highest offer takes it.’

By next year, CanWest also plans to launch a national, Vancouver-based, supper-hour newscast and a new public affairs show from Calgary.

cftpa response

While Canadian Film and Television Production Association president Elizabeth McDonald says the review of CanWest’s benefits package is not complete, ‘my first reaction is they [CanWest] appear to be quite serious about where they’re going.’

‘Part of the issue in terms of where [cftpa] is going is to get some of these figures [on production and other spending] down. I also want to see what they file with the commission in early March with regards to the changes in conditions of licence or what their response will be. There are a number of issues at play,’ says McDonald.

The CanWest benefit package includes:

* $8 million for the promotion of Canadian tv in Canada and internationally;

* $4.6 million for communications and media studies, and $2.75 million for industry training centres such as the National Screen Institute, the Canadian Film Centre, The Film Circuit and Media Awareness;

* $18.2 million for local programming in Hamilton, Victoria and Kelowna; and $2.25 million in grants and endowments to local arts groups in b.c., Alberta and Hamilton;

* $23.9 million for a programming fund to be used by Western producers as a ‘top up’ of licence fees; $1 million for the creation of a strand of new health-related tv series and documentaries; $1 million for Aboriginal co-productions and $1.5 million for joint initiatives with cbc;

* $3 million in support of national and regional industry associations including the Banff Television Festival, cca, nbrs, ampia and Canadian Women in Communications.

In line with the crtc’s new priority programming proposals, CanWest says it is prepared to broadcast eight hours of priority Canadian programs in primetime on all Global and wic stations, effective Sept. 1.

by leo rice-barker with files from samantha yaffe