A similar approach is under way in Hamilton, where Channel Zero has overhauled CHCH, formerly part of Canwest’s failed E! network. Cal Millar, Channel Zero’s president, says the highest ratings at the station have always come from news, so the station has added 15 new jobs and broadcasts live from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Then, during the evenings, CHCH becomes a movie channel featuring what Millar calls “comfortable favourites”—popular movies from the last five to 20 years. In short, both CHCH and CHEK believe there’s a large enough number of viewers willing to re-watch movies they may already have seen and enjoyed to make a business out of it.
This isn’t to say the two stations have stumbled upon a magical fix for the industry. It will take time before either can show clear results. Nor will a hyper-local model necessarily be the right fit for those considering a run at Canwest’s remaining conventional stations. A lot will depend on who does the buying. For one thing, there’s a chance the company’s creditors will decide to hold on to the stations themselves, at least until the economy improves, says Christopher Waddell, director of the School of Journalism at Carleton University. And if a single buyer can’t be found for the whole lot, creditors might decide to sell them one at a time to avoid flooding the market.
Canwest’s lenders might also wait to see how the CRTC rules on a highly public dispute between broadcasters and TV service providers. Canwest, CTV and Global want cable and satellite providers to pay to carry their network signals, which are now picked up for free, while the cable companies have fought back, saying any fees would amount to a bailout on the backs of TV viewers.
Amid all that, several names are floating around as potential buyers. Specialty TV providers like Corus Entertainment or Astral Media, both of which would be eager bidders if Canwest sells its own basket of specialty channels, might jump in if they could get the conventional stations at “fire sale prices,” says Sawyer. “It wouldn’t be part of their 10-year corporate success strategy, but they could run them for a few years and make some profit.”
Meanwhile, Onex Corp., whose CEO Gerry Schwartz was an early partner to Izzy Asper, has been suggested. So too have other wealthy individuals in cities across the country, such as Jimmy Pattison in Vancouver, who already owns three small-market stations in B.C. and Alberta. Other private investment funds have also poked around in the industry. Bluepoint Investments considered buying a CTV station in Brandon, Man., last month, but backed out at the last minute.
Waddell says the current economic and media climate offers huge risks, as well as potential returns for anyone bold enough to step up. “This isn’t really the time for people who don’t know anything about the media to suddenly decide they want to become media moguls,” he says. Still, he adds, investment funds could team up with smart media executives to explore new broadcast models. “There is a great opportunity for anyone with a sense of innovation who’s willing to take some risks to experiment.”
One thing is certain: almost any combination of deals will be certain to brush up against the CRTC’s Byzantine media ownership rules, not to mention the sensibilities of nationalists. The regulator’s foreign ownership restrictions all but guarantee the same old names will likely be at the table, while its policies aimed at curbing media concentration will mean other potential bidders such as Rogers, which owns CityTV stations in some major markets, might be shut out.
But as Canwest struggles through its restructuring, and the TV industry battles to remain relevant, perhaps it’s worth taking a page from history, say media watchers like David Tucker, at Ryerson University’s School of Radio and Television. When many of these very stations were launched, they were said to be the death of movie theatres. And in the same way TV and the movies instead came to exist lucratively side by side, media watchers say it’s too soon to write off conventional TV. “There’s a lot of hand-wringing out there, and it will take time to settle out,” Tucker says. “But a new era is going to arise.” It’s just that, for now, the picture is too fuzzy to make out.
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