Net Earnings Double at CanWest

WINNIPEG, January 11: CanWest
Global Communications Corp., which yesterday announced a deal with GS Capital
Partners to acquire Alliance Atlantis Communications, has reported a first
quarter profit of C$66 million, versus last year’s C$30 million.

The company's consolidated
revenues for the quarter, however, were up just 1 percent to $860 million.
Canadian television operations registered significant improvement over last
year's result with revenues up 11 percent for the quarter to C$208 million. At
Network TEN in Australia, revenues decreased by 3 percent from last year in
local currency terms. The New Zealand broadcasting operations registered a 2
percent increase in revenues for the quarter in local currency terms.

“We are satisfied with our
first quarter results particularly with the significant improvement in Canadian
television,” said Leonard Asper, CanWest's president and CEO. “Our programming
strategy is working, increasing the number of top 10 and top 20 shows, and is
recognized by our advertisers. Cost containment initiatives in our newspaper
and interactive operations plus strong online revenue contributed to the 8
percent improvement in EBITDA for those operations. We also see the beginning
of a positive turnaround at Network TEN and a strong market in New Zealand. In
sum, this is an encouraging start to the new fiscal year and we expect this
positive trend to continue as we get further into fiscal 2007."