The former Alliance Atlantis specialty channels, now controlled and managed by Canwest Global Communications in partnership with Goldman Sachs & Co., emerged this week as a bright spot in a darkening TV ad business.

CW Media Holdings, which includes Showcase and History Television, posted higher advertising and subscriber fee revenues as part of its first-quarter results unveiled Tuesday.

But the Canwest subsidiary swung to a steep first-quarter loss after it recorded foreign exchange losses of $57.1 million related to the impact of the weaker Canadian dollar, compared to the American greenback, on unhedged U.S. denominated senior unsecured notes.

CW Media Holdings saw overall revenues climb 9.3% to $106.1 million, compared to $97.1 million in 2007 on a pro forma basis.

During the first quarter, traditionally a strong airtime sales period going into the fall TV season, advertising revenue rose 10.6% to $66.7 million, while subscriber fee revenues were up 7% to $38.7 million on a pro forma basis.

The biggest advertising gains came with the HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, Slice and National Geographic Channel assets.

Despite a higher direct profit, CW Media posted an overall loss of $53.3 million, against a pro forma profit of $19.1 million in 2007, owing to higher interest charges and the collapsing value of the Canadian dollar last fall impacting on U.S. dollar-denominated debt.

To trim operating costs, CW Media Holdings announced in November plans to cut 30 jobs by May 31.

Canwest has a 35% equity interest and a 67% voting interest in CW Media Holdings, while Goldman Sachs Capital Partners holds the remaining interests.

Canwest in 2011 plans to combine its own conventional and specialty TV channels with the 13 CW Media Holdings channels, and exercise an option to buy out Goldman Sachs.