CRTC Approval Granted for Alliance Atlantis Acquisition

TORONTO, December 21: The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) has approved the acquisition of Alliance Atlantis’s broadcasting assets by CanWest Global Communications Corp.

“We are satisfied that this transaction meets the requirements for Canadian control both in law and fact,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, the chairman of the CRTC. “In examining the application, we wanted to be certain that this transaction is consistent with the policies set out in the Broadcasting Act and beneficial to the Canadian broadcasting system as a whole.”

Leonard Asper, the president and CEO of CanWest, noted: “We are very pleased with today’s decision and with the timely manner in which the Commission was able to render it. We thank the management and employees of both companies involved for their patience and hard work during this process and we are looking forward to moving ahead and bringing Alliance Atlantis into the CanWest organization.”

Kathy Dore, the president of television for CanWest MediaWorks, added: “The acquisition of Alliance Atlantis’ specialty broadcasting channels will ensure that the Canadian broadcasting system has another strong competitor in the conventional/specialty marketplace. I believe that the combined expertise of CanWest and Alliance Atlantis will allow us to produce even better Canadian content, promote it more effectively. and provide greater access to more viewers across more platforms.”

—By Mansha Daswani