Canwest Global Communications swung to a second-quarter loss after the U.S. writers strike and the loss of the 2008 NFL Super Bowl telecast to CTV shrunk TV ad sales.

As Canwest Global on Friday released its latest financial results, company executives conceded to analysts that they possibly fared worse than CTV during the recent Hollywood shutdown, due to disrupted primetime schedules.

Canwest Global reported a second-quarter loss of $33.9 million, compared to a profit of $7.06 million during the second quarter of 2007.

That drop came despite revenues that rose 9% to $701.9 million after the company acquired 13 cable channels from Alliance Atlantis Communications to create CW Media with American equity partner Goldman Sachs & Co.

Excluding CW Media, revenue from Canadian television fell 9.4% to $150.5 million, as Canwest Global relied on reality shows and drama re-runs to get through the WGA dispute, though perhaps not as successfully as CTV.

Kathy Dore, president of Canwest Broadcasting, told financial analysts during a conference call that TV ad revenue fell between 2% to 3%. Some of that was due to Global Television losing the 2008 NFL Super Bowl telecast to CTV.

She put the remaining TV ad revenue loss down to the ‘writers strike hitting us possibly to a greater degree than some of our competitors.’

She explained that Global Television went without the return of Fox’s 24 during the winter labor dispute, for example, while CTV held its own with reality TV series like Fox’s American Idol and NBC’s American Gladiators.

The bottom line was also impacted by one-time acquisition costs associated with the purchase of the Alliance Atlantis specialty channels.

Company president and CEO Leonard Asper forecast improved TV ad revenues during the second half of 2008 for Global Television and E!, but cautioned that would depend on an upturn in the Canadian TV advertising market and the impact of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games from Beijing, which will air on the rival CBC network.