– CanWest buys NZ radio station

CanWest Global Communications is continuing its foray into the New Zealand broadcasting market with a conditional agreement to acquire More FM, New Zealand’s top rated commercial radio network for NZ$33 million cash.

Leonard Asper, CanWest’s vice-president of corporate development commented, ‘We have long ago concluded that ownership of radio in our television markets is the next logical progression for CanWest.’

CanWest already owns substantial economic interests in Australia’s Network Ten, and 68% of New Zealand’s TV3 and TV4.

In other CanWest news, chairman Izzy Asper is making a permanent gift to the Faculty of Management at the University of Manitoba in the sum of $1 million. The donation will be held in trust by the university, and the net income will be used to enhance advanced study and programs in the field of entrepreneurship and enterprise education.

In recognition of the gift, the University’s Faculty of Management Centre for the study and advancement of entrepreneurship, has been re-named the Asper Centre For Entrepreneurship.

-Discreet turnaround

Discreet Logic has acquired Los Angeles-based Denim Software, a producer of paintbox, compositional and effects tools, at a price of US$11.3 million.

Discreet’s Unix-based product-line includes post and effects packages Flint, Flame and Inferno. Denim software can be used on both Macintosh and NT Windows platforms.

Discreet’s NASDAQ listing is up more than 180% in the past three months hitting the US$16 level from a low of under $4 less than a year ago.

-Production software

Bulloch Entertainment Services is launching Version 2 of Bulloch On Location, a payroll software program for production accountants and managers.

The software, which was designed in consultation with the unions and guilds, instantly calculates timesheets incorporating union rules and variances, and generates daily labor hot cost reports.

Bulloch says the payroll program can be tailored to regional union contracts, including variances, and can calculate times, including meal penalties, turnaround and upgrades.

-NSFDC commits second fund round

The Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation announced today it will commit $981,000 to support Nova Scotia’s film and television industry in its second round of funding in the current fiscal year. The total amount the corporation has injected into the industry in 1997 stands at $2 million.

Program applications are being accepted for NSFDS’s third round of funding, the results of which will be announced in mid-September. Application deadline is September 5, 1997.