CanWest Secures Approval to Take Control of TEN

WINNIPEG,
August 17: CanWest Global Communications Corp. has received approval from
Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) to take control of Ten
Network Holdings.

CanWest
can now exercise its right to exchange its ordinary shares and convertible
debentures of The Ten Group for ordinary shares in terrestrial broadcaster TEN.
CanWest will now become TEN’s majority shareholder with a 56-percent
controlling stake.

"We
welcome FIRB's decision and expect to complete the exchange by the end of this
month," said Leonard Asper, CanWest's president and CEO. "Over the
past 15 years, TEN has been an extremely successful investment for us and we
believe there is still much growth potential to be realized."