With the latest two-step from CanWest MediaWorks, you’d think that Izzy was back from the dead. I’m speaking, of course, of the deal between CanWest and Comcast’s E! Entertainment to rebrand its flaccid second-tier conventional CH channels under the E! banner.

It’s a great deal for both parties. E! gets a nice consistent feed for its 24/7 coverage of any red carpet it can find – and on a conventional network, no less! (Get used to those exclamation marks! You’re going to see a lot more of them!) CanWest gets the programming, a nice brand which that 18-34 demo – and the advertisers that so love it – can get their heads around, and multiple platforms on which to exploit it all.

It’s an astonishing act of chutzpa, and one that leaves many – critics, admirers, rivals and journalists alike – scratching our heads.

Specialty branding on a conventional? Who came up with that one? And speaking of branding, how much more Hollywood can you possibly get? On channels that are licenced specifically to provide local programming? How did they pull that one off?

It’s all about lateral thinking and strict adherence to the letter, if not – as Maureen Parker of the Writers Guild of Canada asserts – the spirit, of the law. That’s how Global Television, and then CanWest the media conglomerate, was built, after all. So you can see where the spirit of Izzy must be smiling down on this one.

But a conventional television licence long ceased to be the ‘licence to print money’ that Roy Thomson once quipped, and that especially goes for CanWest, which, even with two conventionals in multiple markets and an aggressive buying strategy – continues to limp behind CTV in the ratings. So they gotta do something.

It would be tidy and romantic to think that Leonard picked up the reins where Izzy left off, but in this case, I think he delegated. Enter Kathy Dore and Barb Williams. Dore is a U.S. import with a long history in U.S. cable (it was she who spearheaded the launch of Entertainment Tonight Canada in all its spackled glory), and Williams, a former Alliance Atlantis executive, worked with the U.S. cabler Scripps on the AAC version of HGTV, Life Network and Food Network.

With the CTV acquisition of CHUM in mid-air, the Global folks very cleverly seized the opportunity the bureaucratic upheaval afforded in the waning days of CHUM’s contract for E! programming on its Star! channel. But the real genius in the deal is that it did not require the blessing, or technically even the knowledge, of the CRTC. Though Williams says CanWest gave them the heads up. ‘We thought it was appropriate,’ she said. ‘No one’s looking to surprise anyone.’

Given that the media giant has yet to face off with the CRTC over its proposed acquisition of Alliance Atlantis, and then, next year, its licence renewal hearings, its has extra reason to play nice with the regulator.

According to E! Entertainment International prexy Kevin MacLellan, the deal was structured, very deliberately, to work within the boundaries of CH’s terms of licence. ‘You have no idea how much time I’ve spent studying the CRTC,’ he said, joking that he could have earned a doctorate on the regulator by now.

The channels will continue to broadcast their required quota of local coverage, and will even, Williams notes, alongside the E! hoopla, be returning to their historical call letters (CHCH News, CHEK News, CHBC News, CHCA News and CJNT Montreal). ‘We are still absolutely committed to living up to our conditions of licence, all our Canadian content, local news and priority programming.’ All of its E! programming will be incidental to the schedule – late prime, off-peak, and weekends.

She argues that critics are being ‘knee-jerk’ in their complaints about this one, noting that no one whined about HGTV and Food Network as a transplanted U.S. identity. ‘It’s only a brand,’ she says. ‘The programming decisions come from us. I don’t think there’s any reason to think the channel’s going to become less Canadian.’

They will have plenty of watchdogs to make certain of that. ‘The main point is these airwaves do not belong to them,’ says the WGC’s Parker. ‘They’re public property, and they’re required to fulfill their terms of licence, and we’ll be sure they do.’

And speaking of watchdogs, we’ve had enquiries about the assertion in my last column that this is the best year in five for the CBC, and that the pubcaster has had five million-plus hits. Went back and double-checked those numbers, and Oops! BBM Nielsen says that overall, this last season was the poorest in the Ceeb’s history, and that Little Mosque on the Prairie is the only series averaging a full million.

CBC executive director of network programming Kirstine Layfield says she stands by her numbers, which require only a little trapeze work to support. The CBC bean counters are working with the primetime share, excluding the Olympics figures, and while Hockey Night in Canada and Little Mosque did average a million-plus, and the special Test the Nation also achieved that number, Mercer’s mil is the cumulation of more than one airing per episode, while Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister and The Greatest Canadian Invention were kinda, sorta, within striking distance of a mil.

My bad. Note to self; read the fine print next time.