Regulatory relief and cost-cutting are keys to reviving Canwest Global Communications’ conventional TV business, a resolute CEO Leonard Asper said on Friday.

Canwest unveiled a fourth-quarter loss of $1.02 billion, against a year-earlier $197 million profit — due mostly to a $1.01 billion non-cash write-down of its Canadian conventional TV business to reflect dire expectations for advertising revenue going forward.

Excluding the goodwill write-down and other one-off charges, Canwest recorded an adjusted fourth-quarter loss of $38 million, against a year-earlier adjusted loss of $65 million.

Fourth-quarter revenue was $726 million, against $678 million in 2007, below analyst expectations.

Two days after unveiling plans to cut 560 jobs to achieve $61 million in annual cost savings, Asper reiterated that Canwest will do whatever is necessary to contain costs and right the ship.

Also to that end, Asper called for less CRTC regulation of its over-the-air TV stations as conventional viewership continues to fall in terms of reach and share.

‘We will continue the battle, whether it’s Part 2 fees, prescription drug advertising,’ Asper told analysts, as he eyed upcoming licence renewal hearings before the CRTC.

‘Our cost obligations, our content obligations. This is not over. We’re extremely disappointed the way the CRTC has come out of the hearings, this is far from over,’ he added, still smarting over being denied subscriber fees from cable and satellite TV operators for OTA signals.

Kathy Dore, Canwest Broadcasting’s outgoing president, echoed her network’s combative stance towards the CRTC.

‘It’s critical to [the OTA stations’] long-term health and viability, particular in small markets. We’ve set a very high priority in terms of our approach to conventional licence renewal,’ Dore told analysts.

At the same time, the Canwest executives had to walk a fine line between stressing that the conventional TV model is broken, in order to secure regulatory relief, and assuring investors that sharp advertising revenue declines for Global Television and the E! stations during September and October had ‘stabilized’ in recent weeks.

‘The conventional TV revenue model continues to be challenging, and I would dare say broken. We will continue to look at the regulatory agenda,’ Asper told analysts.

With an eye to his beaten-down share price, Asper quickly added: ‘Investors should focus on the fundamentals of our business, and not on the noise. We continue to produce strong cash flows. We have businesses that are outperforming the industry.’

Specifically, the profitable businesses remain newspapers and specialty channels, each of which posted an operating profit during the latest quarter, while Canwest’s conventional TV business fell further into negative territory.

Broken out, Canwest’s Global TV business, excluding the newly acquired Alliance Atlantis specialty channels, posted flat revenue of $127 million, compared to the same period of 2007. The division recorded a negative operating profit of $19 million, compared to a year-earlier negative $10 million.

The damage on the conventional TV side was done during the summer, when Global Television and E! faced disruption from the Olympics and the Canadian and American elections, the loss of the NFL, and an increasing advertising downturn.

That underperformance was partially offset by CW Media, comprising the Alliance Atlantis niche channels, which posted revenue of $81 million and an operating profit of $19 million during the latest quarter.

Advertising revenue for CW Media was up 6% during the fourth quarter, and up 16% for full-year 2008.

‘We’re behind in conventional and well ahead in specialty,’ Asper told analysts, summing up his TV division’s advertising-dependent performance during the latest quarter.

He pointed to paralyzed advertisers, especially automakers, holding back on their conventional dollar spend until they have greater market visibility.

There was other bad news for Canwest Global in its latest financials. The company said it had secured greater wiggle room from its bankers when it came to its debt covenants — a key concern for investors. At the same time, Canwest said it paid $89.6 million in interest payments on its $3.7-billion debt load during the latest quarter, $30 million more than in Q4 2007.

The upshot, Asper argued, was the CRTC needed to loosen licence obligations for Global Television and E! so their content can grow revenues in the emerging digital, multi-platform world.

That relief can’t come fast enough for Canwest’s share price, which by mid-afternoon on Friday fell to $0.77 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, down $0.03, or 3.75% on the day. Shares had touched $0.69 earlier in the day.