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Corus Entertainment Inc. is possibly interested in buying some specialty channels from Canwest Global Communications Ltd. but not other parts of its media business, Corus CEO John Cassaday said on January 13.
Cassaday made the comments to analysts in a conference call about his company's first-quarter financial results, which provided evidence that Corus experienced a much-needed rebound in advertising revenue in November.
Overall revenues from television and radio climbed to $222.3 million from $216.8 million, although the growth came from specialty TV channels.
"We have seen a turnaround in our advertising sales with a return to growth in the low single-digits," Cassaday said. He expects the ad sales recovery will continue for the balance of the fiscal year, which ends in August.
Corus said its first-quarter profit, for the three months ended Nov. 30, rose 82% from a year earlier to $73.9 million. The company's net earnings amounted to 91 cents per diluted share. The results were an increase from 50 cents per share or $40.6 million a year earlier.
Television revenue from specialty cable channels increased to $151.3 million in the quarter, up about $10 million from the year-earlier period.
Corus specialty cable channels include YTV, Treehouse, W Network, and Cosmopolitan TV, as well as Movie Central and HBO Canada in western Canada.
The company has been pegged as one of a handful of investors interested in acquiring certain assets of Canwest, the Winnipeg-based television and publishing company that owns Global Television, the National Post and the former Alliance Atlantis specialty cable channels.
Cassaday told analysts that Corus is still interested in some of the Canwest's specialty channels, though he emphasized that he wouldn't be interested in other pieces of the company, which include an array of dailies in major Canadian cities in addition to the Post.
"Nothing has changed from our previously stated position," Cassaday said. "Our interest is restricted to certain specific specialty assets-period."
Cassaday declined to elaborate on which Canwest channels he would be interested in buying, though it's widely thought the company wants the highly lucrative channels that Canwest acquired from Atlantis Alliance in 2007, which include the HGTV home-improvement channel, Showcase and History Television.
Most of Canwest has been put under court protection from its creditors, but the unit comprising the former Atlantis Alliance business hasn't been put under the protection of the Companies Creditor Arrangement Act.
Canwest has said it expects to put its conventional television assets and newspapers up for sale.
Source: Marketing, 01/13/2010
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