Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, television broadcasting, and publishing assets in several countries, primarily Canada.
Canwest was founded in 1974 by Izzy Asper through the formation of CIII-TV in Toronto under the Global Television Network. The company expanded through the 1980s and 1990s, with the initial public offering in 1991 as a publicly traded corporation and the international expansion of its operations in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom and Turkey. Throughout the years, under Leonard Asper, who became its president and CEO in 1999, Canwest grew into a major media powerhouse by acquiring media properties such as Western International Communications and the Southam newspaper publishing. In 2007, with Goldman Sachs, Canwest acquired the broadcasting arm of Alliance Atlantis.
After years of debt, Canwest began to slowly collapse in 2008, amid the Great Recession, and later entered bankruptcy protection in late 2009, which led to its breakup the following year. Its publishing interests formed the nucleus of Postmedia Network, founded by National Post CEO Paul Godfrey, while its broadcasting interests were sold to Shaw Communications, which later reorganized its media division as Shaw Media. On April 1, 2016, the broadcasting assets were subsumed into Corus Entertainment, an existing broadcasting firm also owned by the Shaw family.
Following the sale of assets, the company was renamed 2737469 Canada Inc., ceased to carry on business, and commenced bankruptcy proceedings under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act before finally being dissolved on May 27, 2013.
In 1974, a group led by Israel Asper bought the assets of Pembina, North Dakota television station KCND-TV from broadcaster Gordon McLendon, moving the station to Winnipeg as an independent station, CKND-TV. Asper, through his company, Canwest, eventually bought out his partners in the Winnipeg station. A few months later, the Asper group joined a consortium that bought CKGN-TV, a network of six simulcasting transmitters across Ontario that carried many of CKND's programs and was known on-air as the Global Television Network. Canwest bought controlling interest in Global, now using the callsign CIII-TV, in 1985, thus becoming the first western-based owner of a major Canadian broadcaster. He acquired the remaining stock in 1989.
Canwest subsequently invested in or acquired other independent TV stations across Canada. Eventually, his station group became known as the "Canwest Global System." In 1997, Canwest bought a controlling interest in CKMI-TV, the privately owned CBC affiliate in Quebec City. Canwest then set up CKMI rebroadcasters in Montreal and Sherbrooke. With this move, Canwest's stations now had enough coverage of Canada that on August 18—the day CKMI officially disaffiliated from CBC—Canwest scrubbed all local brands from its stations, rebranding them as "The Global Television Network." Throughout the 1990s, Global (and its antecedents) held Canadian rights to hit U.S. series, such as Cheers, Friends, and Frasier.
Canwest also bought broadcasting assets internationally, including outlets in New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, and Australia, although all were eventually sold off. In 1991, Canwest issued a successful initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. In June 1996, Canwest was listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Beyond broadcasting and the newspapers
Lacking a presence in Alberta, the company set its sights on Western International Communications, which owned three independent stations in that province that carried Global's programming. It eventually bought the company's broadcasting assets in 2000. This not only boosted Global's coverage in western Canada, but prompted the establishment of a second over-the-air service, originally known as CH, since in some areas, the combined company had duplicate over-the-air coverage through multiple stations. Later that year, Canwest announced its acquisition of Southam Inc.'s newspaper chain from Conrad Black, in order to pursue a media convergence strategy.
Canwest was initially slow to invest in specialty channels due to the strength of its terrestrial network. In 1999, seeking to change this, the company announced a deal to buy out the Canadian partners of NetStar Communications, owner of TSN, but was stymied by U.S. partner ESPN, which had veto power over such a sale. ESPN instead came to terms with Canwest's main rival, CTV, a longtime business partner of ESPN's parent company Disney, as an acceptable buyer, which the selling partners eventually agreed to.
In an effort to get into the entertainment business, the company had bought out producer and distributor Fireworks Entertainment in 1998, and gained interest in Seven Arts Pictures, a film production company. Canwest would end up selling its entertainment unit in 2005.
In 2005, Canwest launched a new website, Canada.com, which served as a digital media platform for its rebranded brands in the digital space. These brands encompassed various local news outlets, major newspapers, and other media entities. The brands were collectively presented under the "canada.com Network" and included the following (as listed in the website footer): Newspapers: National Post, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Journal, The Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Regina Leader Post, The Saskatoon Star Phoenix, The Vancouver Sun, The Vancouver Province, Victoria Times Colonist, The Windsor Star, Dose, Vancouver Island Newspaper, VANNEET Newspaper; Television: Global, CH, Prime TV, Fox Sports World Canada, Lonestar, Mystery, Xtreme Sports, Deje View, mentv, Cool TV; Radio: CoolFM 99.1, 91.5 The Beat; Marketplace: working.com, driving.ca, connecting, celebrating, remembering, homes. The website experience revolved around news, city guides, activities, and events to enhance advertising revenue. The site was developed by Cossette/Fjord, based in Toronto, Canada, in 2005.
In October 2005, Canwest's Canadian newspapers were sold into an IPO trust, and it sold 25.8% of Canada's newspapers for CA$550 million. Attached to the Canadian newspaper IPO was $850 million in long-term debt. Canwest bought back the 25.8% newspaper trust IPO (and debt) in November 2008, for cash considerations of $495 million. In April 2006, Canwest acquired four radio stations in Turkey: Super FM, Metro FM, Joy FM and Joy Turk FM from The Turkish Savings and Deposit Insurance Fund, for aggregate cash consideration of US$61 million.
The company was already one of the largest owners of Canadian local TV stations when Canwest and Goldman Sachs, in 2007, announced they would jointly acquire Canadian producer and competing broadcaster, Alliance Atlantis, and its massive stable of wide-distribution specialty channels. Under the deal, Canwest took control of the broadcasting portion of AAC, although Goldman Sachs remained a major investor in those assets. Goldman retained or resold the remaining pieces of AAC, with the distribution arm soon re-emerging as Alliance Films.
Canwest executives testified in the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission hearings over fee-for-carriage, requesting that the commission force cable and satellite companies to pay for their signals without passing the fees on to their subscribers. In his testimony, Canwest president Leonard Asper blamed the current rules for the poor financial condition of Canada's broadcast television stations, a position which has subsequently been adopted and addressed through rule changes by the CRTC and FCC.
Restructuring, creditor protection, bankruptcy, and liquidation
Canwest's various acquisitions took a significant financial toll. As early as 2002, most of Canwest's operating income was going to paying interest on its high-interest-rate debt. By 2007, the company's bonds were downgraded to junk status. By early 2009, it became clear the company's debt was not manageable during the Great Recession, forcing Canwest into an extended set of negotiations with its lenders and a series of cost-cutting moves. The company's income statements reported net losses in 2008 and 2009, even though its operating activities were profitable (before taxes, interest, and non-operating charges: C$197 million in 2009, vs. C$428 million in 2008).