
Originally Posted by
MyChoiceTV
One of the reasons I'm so excited about the Shaw acquisition of Canwest is that the Shaw family are the key investors in Corus Entertainment, one of the few bright spots in the Canadian broadcast/cable television landscape. :)
The Corus mix of specialty and premium television networks are top domestic producers of original, scripted Canadian content, and they are significant exporters of many scripted series to American networks.
I look forward to their positive impact upon Canwest, and the likely greenlighting of Canadian series once they re-align the network. Like others on this board, I'm predicting that they will shift Global and some of their specialties towards the K2-17 and W18-49 demographics because these align nicely to the Corus television holdings. Both demographics are also in-demand with advertisers.
Post-CRTC rubberstamping, I'd watch for the new Global (ShawWest?) to greenlight some additional brand new Canadian female-targeted and kid-teen-aimed productions, while also initiating selective deals to pick up some of the more female-skewing ABC and CW series. Look for Global to wind down many of its longstanding FOX series buys, which are more male-oriented and will probably end up going to Rogers/CITY. I doubt that the new Global will be so addicted to simulcasting as it has been in the past, only because Corus has proven themselves almost Quebec-like in getting Canadians to watch Canadian tv.
Corus have the finances, the creative people and the needed to source original productions, both series and telefilms.
Shaw is not merging Canwest with Corus, they plan to keep Corus separate from Canwest broadcasting.
Canwest already has specialty channels that target the women 18-49/25-54 demographics, It doesn't make sense to shift all their channels to those demos just because that's a demo Corus stations go after.
The same goes for Global, they already have a healthy mix of programming that targets both male and female demos. I don't see them removing hit FOX programming just because it may go after a male demographic. Global's current schedule is giving them their best ratings in years, it doesn't make any sense to rebrand Global into a womens specialty channel.
I also don't see why Global would air less simulcast programs, Corus (which will be separate from Global & Canwest) doesn't simsub now because they don't own a conventional broadcast network.
Canwest also currently has a good number of scripted Canadian series currently in developement, and they are by far the leader in Canadian lifestyle programming.
My views are my own and do not represent any company.