The Ontario Superior Court of Justice has chosen Shaw Communications’ $95 million bid to grab control of Canwest Global Communications’ TV assets and take them private.

The court’s blessing sets up a likely confrontation between Shaw and Goldman Sachs & Co. as the cable operator attempts to tear up Canwest Global’s agreement with the U.S. investment bank over their jointly owned 13 former Alliance Atlantis channels.

Goldman Sachs backed a failed eleventh-hour $120 million bid from a consortium that included Canadian equity firm Catalyst Capital, Canwest Global CEO Leonard Asper and siblings David and Gail Asper.

Shaw’s winning bid was endorsed by Canwest Global’s board of directors, the Ontario court’s monitor and a majority of U.S. bondholders and other senior lenders — and signals the exit of the Asper family from the Canadian media giant originally founded by Israel Asper.

Shaw will now look to cross remaining hurdles in its way to acquiring at least 20% of equity in a rebooted Canwest Global and 80% of the broadcaster’s voting stock. That equity stake is likely to exceed 20% as Shaw eventually offers U.S. bondholders and other secured lenders cash rather than shares in a restructured broadcaster.

Shaw said it does not know how many U.S. bondholders will take cash payments, but that its ‘80% voting interest will give it effective control of a restructured Canwest regardless of its final equity interest.’

Goldman Sachs backed the Catalyst bid in part over a suspicion that the interests of U.S. bondholders increasingly dictate the course of Canwest Global’s restructuring and the fate of the Alliance Atlantis channels.

‘Sadly, it is difficult to see this filing as anything other than perpetuation of the noteholder committee’s and the company’s continued efforts from the start to exclude GSCP from the process and force a fait accompli,’ lawyer Kevin McElcheran, who is representing Goldman Sachs, said in a Feb. 13 letter to the Ontario court before its ruling on the Shaw bid.

Shaw’s rationale for ripping up the 2007 shareholders agreement is clear: Goldman Sachs stands to pocket a huge profit from putting up two-thirds of the financing for Canwest Global’s takeover of the AAC channels when the Canadian broadcaster purchases Goldman’s stake in 2011.

Goldman Sach’s take-out price will be determined by the relative value of the AAC channels and the Global Television network, starting in 2011.

Besides talks with Goldman Sachs, Shaw’s equity play for Canwest Global faces a number of other hurdles, including securing approval from the CRTC, creditors and the court for the broadcaster’s overall restructuring.

To potentially appease the CRTC, Shaw proposes that a restructured Canwest Global will remain ‘a pure play Canadian broadcaster,’ with its own management team and board of directors.

Shaw said it wants Canwest Global’s court-directed trip through creditor protection to conclude by Aug. 11.