TORONTO – While there have been a number of suits spotted roaming through Canwest Global’s E! stations over the past few months, kicking the figurative tires at the local OTA outlets with the “For Sale” sign on them, some actual names have now been attached to potential suitors.
According to a number of sources on Wednesday, executives from Channel Zero (owners of specialty channels Movieola and Silver Screen Classics and film distributor Ouat Media) spent part of Wednesday afternoon at CHCH Hamilton closely inspecting the facility.
All bidders in such transactions are normally bound by non-disclosure agreements – and employees don’t want to get fired for speaking out of turn – so none of the several sources we talked to would speak on the record. However, Cartt.ca has received confirmation from enough people now, and late Wednesday Channel Zero’s vice-president and general manager Cal Millar confirmed that the company is “interested in one or more” of Canwest Global’s E! stations, he said.
He would not expand on any potential programming plans nor on a potential purchase price, however.
Canwest said in February that its smaller, secondary conventional television network (currently branded E!, but the industry rumour mill says that Canwest has told U.S. brand-owner E! Entertainment Television that the brand will be dropped soon) was no longer core to its operations and would be shopped around.
The stations in question are in Hamilton (CHCH), Victoria (CHEK), Montreal (CJNT), Red Deer (CHCA) and Kelowna (CHBC). It is not known how much Canwest might be able to get for stations it has said lose tens of millions of dollars per year.
Over these months, Cartt.ca has contacted all of Canada’s large broadcasters and media companies (Corus, Astral, Rogers, Shaw, Torstar et al) each of which confirmed at various times their complete lack of interest in E!.
A sale announcement may come soon since the debt-laden parent company faces a number of far larger, more pressing issues right now, such as the need to come to an agreement in principal with its lenders on a newly recapitalized Canwest on June 15th.
Canwest Global spokesman John Douglas told Cartt.ca on Wednesday there is serious interest in the E! stations but would not comment on who it might be. “We’re analyzing proposals, but we’re not going to talk about who’s been through where.”
Douglas also confirmed that Canwest programmers bought no new fall programming at the L.A. screenings last week for E!. For example, the network’s most popular U.S. sitcom, How I Met Your Mother, has been picked up by Rogers Broadcasting’s Citytv.
Another local source thought to be interested in at least the Hamilton station was a group led by Grimsby-based David Breukelman, president of investment company Business Arts.
“They seemed really interested,” one CH employee who asked not to be named told Cartt.ca Wednesday. Business Arts did not respond to an e-mailed request for comment.
As well, anchor Donna Skelly floated an idea for a renewed CH, based largely on local news, however it appears her community-backed bid didn’t have enough financial support (although it had community support in spades).
Watch Cartt.ca for more on this breaking story.
