Despite complaints of media concentration and a winnowing of options for TV-makers, producers acquainted with Alliance Atlantis Communications and its parent-to-be CanWest Global see an upside to the latter’s proposed $2.3-billion buyout of the Toronto cable channel giant, announced Jan. 10.

Jamie Brown, CEO and exec producer of Winnipeg-based Frantic Films, has made shows including Kitchen Crimes for AAC’s Food Network and the reality Last Chance for Romance on Global. He notes that there’s ‘not a lot of overlap’ in the channels currently held by each company.

‘That should mean that, even though the channels move under one roof, there won’t be fewer channels. Global hopefully won’t be changing something that works very well,’ he says, noting that AAC’s 13 specialty channels are ‘very profitable.’

‘We would prefer to deal with one set of contracts that are standardized over many shows, and one accounting and legal department,’ he adds.

Knight Enterprises owner and producer Chris Knight sees the acquisition as a probable win-win for his Ottawa-based company, which makes Junk Brothers, Licence to Grill and others for AAC’s HGTV and Food Network.

‘With CanWest’s assets, there may be the opportunity to extend the brand of a TV show and tie-in webisodes and other multiplatform content into print,’ he says.

‘As a factual, reality and lifestyle producer, I don’t really have a lot of concern [that the merger] is going to deteriorate our business possibilities,’ he adds.

If approved, the deal also stands to create a nine-figure production fund because of CRTC regulations that require such deals to put 10% of the sticker price back into domestic production. The funding bonanza is being loudly talked up by CanWest president and CEO Leonard Asper.

Unions have come down hard on the proposed deal, however, warning that it stands to hurt drama production, news coverage and deal making.

‘We can make assumptions based on past practice and the current marketplace,’ says Maureen Parker, exec director of the Writers Guild of Canada. ‘And what we do know is that Global doesn’t have a good track record in terms of Canadian production, especially dramatic.

‘We’ll see more repeats [of Canadian programming] and I’m sure cheaper productions, unless the CRTC imposes a minimum spending requirement for dramatic programming,’ she adds.

Her concerns are echoed by the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union, which plans to mount a ‘vigorous’ battle to stop the merger, which would require approval by both the CRTC and the federal Competition Bureau.

The Canadian Media Guild is also warning that media concentration on this scale will hurt news coverage, arguing that mega-media companies rarely report on themselves.

Despite his optimism, Brown concedes that producers face some risks in deals like this.

‘When other broadcasters have bought other channels, they would initially pay for a second window for a sister channel in their station group, but slowly over time they have dropped that and included that in the same licence fee they would have paid in the first case. It has happened with shows we’ve produced,’ he says.