MEDIA REPORTER
If the table is set for CanWest Global Communications Corp. to begin selling assets, John Cassaday wants to dine on the Food Network.
The chief executive officer of Corus Entertainment Inc. said he would be interested in several of CanWest's cable television channels if they come up for sale as part of the company's looming financial restructuring.
CanWest, which owns the Global Television network, more than a dozen daily newspapers across the country, and several cable TV channels, is struggling with a debt of nearly $4-billion and trying to stave off filing for protection from creditors.
"We have a big interest in improving and solidifying our position in [TV channels aimed at] women," Mr. Cassaday said, referring to the CanWest-owned Food Network, in which Corus owns a minority stake.
Mr. Cassaday told analysts at an investor conference hosted by BMO that his company coveted the Food Network and another specialty channel, HGTV, when they went on the block as part of the sale of Alliance Atlantis Communications Inc. a few years ago.
"Those assets that were of interest to us then are still interesting to us today, specifically Food, which we have a 20-per-cent interest in, and HGTV," Mr. Cassaday said.
The CanWest restructuring comes as its rival broadcaster CTV has renegotiated lending covenants in a weak advertising market, BMO analyst Tim Casey said after the conference.
Media companies have faced a cash crunch brought on by significant declines in advertising revenue over the past year, and the large conventional TV networks have been hit hard.
"CTV has had to renegotiate certain lending covenants, much like CanWest has, although obviously there is not a liquidity crisis at CTV given their ownership," Mr. Casey said. CTV is privately owned by CTVglobemedia Inc., whose two largest investors are Woodbridge Co. Ltd. and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan. CTVglobemedia also owns The Globe and Mail.
Mr. Casey says CanWest may be forced to sell assets in the coming months as the company negotiates with creditors on a financial restructuring.
"I think people still are watching the situation and waiting for the creditors to make the move, because it's really the creditors who control the destiny," he said.
© The Globe and Mail
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