TORONTO – On Monday afternoon, CTV received a letter from Shaw Communications asking to see the package of due diligence information it has prepared on CHWI-TV Windsor, CKNX-TV Wingham and CKX-TV Brandon.
Readers will recall that last week, in a newspaper ad, Shaw Communications offered to buy the three TV stations (two Ontario A-Channel stations and one CBC affiliate in Brandon) for a dollar each – the sum for which CTV CEO Ivan Fecan previously said he could not find a buyer.
About two hours after hearing of the offer from the Cartt.ca story about the ad last Thursday afternoon, CTV issued a release saying it would accept.
But then it didn’t hear a thing directly from Shaw, even though the company did say it was serious and the ad was more than a publicity ploy.
“We finally heard from Mr Shaw today asking for the (due diligence) documents so we will forward them asap,” CTV’s EVP corporate affairs, Paul Sparkes, told Cartt.ca.
(Ed Note: A Canwest spokesman told Cartt.ca that it has not heard from Shaw about whether the big satellite and cable company is interested in purchasing the five E!-branded stations which are also for sale, but we find it somewhat unlikely Canwest would sell to Shaw, which would then be able to cobble together enough broadcast licenses in enough decent locations to build a reasonable new competitor.)
“I think it’s great. If they see an opportunity to buy these stations and step up to the plate, I think it’s great for the communities. It’s great for them,” said Sparkes.
However, he added, the letter CTV got from Shaw CEO Jim Shaw wasn’t quite as concise as the newspaper ad. “It was a very legal letter that talked about price adjustments, etcetera, etcetera,” he added. “I don’t know how far you can go adjusting the price for a dollar, but… the letter was not as clear cut as the ad.”
Sparkes pointed out that Shaw has a broadcast history in that it owns CJBT Kenora as well as the two CBC affiliates Shaw-controlled Corus Entertainment runs in Kingston (CKWS) and Peterborough (CHEX), so it should be able to do a good job adding three others.
However, using the model it operates under in Kenora may be a non-starter.
Right now, the station gets “all of the CTV News programming and some of our entertainment programming for free,” notes Sparkes, while the station pays “nominal amounts” for some other shows. “These are long-standing agreements,” noted Sparkes, as Kenora used to be CTV affiliate.
Those programming agreements come to an end in August.
Will they continue? “We’ll have to see,” said Sparkes, who added the company has not decided whether the new station’s owners – even if they’re not Shaw – would be able to remain as a CTV or A Channel affiliate.
But what worries Sparkes – and some of the other broadcasters we talked to is that this neat news hook – buying TV stations for a loonie each – will detract from both the CRTC hearing into OTA license renewals in Gatineau and the Heritage Committee hearing on Parliament Hill.
“The Shaw issue shouldn’t rally cloud the real issue here and that’s the future of local television,” added Sparkes. “For local TV to move forward, there has to be another revenue stream found, like a retransmission fee, a fee for carriage, for them to have a viable future.
“One would assume Shaw isn’t using this as a way to make any political hay. We can only assume they’re serious and Mr. Shaw has said they are.”
“The devil’s in the details I guess,” added Sparkes, “and whether or not we get the three bucks.”
– Greg O’Brien
