Converging Global focuses on content, not concerned about getting into carriage

CanWest Global Communications Corp president and CEO Leonard says his firm’s convergence model doesn’t involve carriage. Unlike BCE Inc, which has connectivity via DSL and Bell ExpressVu, Asper said Global was concentrating on being an integrated company focusing exclusively on content and advertising. According to Asper, Global will launch "more than one but less than ten" of the 27 Category 2 digital specialty channels awarded last year by the CRTC. While the company doesn’t have its own distribution channels, Asper says Global plans to offer distributors millions of dollars in advertising on its television network and in its newspapers and Internet properties in exchange for picking up its channels. "If I say to Rogers, I’ll give you a million dollars in free advertising if you carry my service. Who’s going to get the slot? We can offer them a lot of things – to promote (the channels) through various media," he told CCR following a shareholders meeting last week. "We happen to also sell advertising for Rogers’ station in Toronto, CFMT, and we supply them with programming. So having that other leverage is what makes the difference between us and the CTVs and Bells of the world." Asper says Global has developed some priority channels, but it’s a matter of jockeying with other programmers and cablecos because distributors want a mix of channels. Global’s convergence model is different from that of BCE’s, but Asper says it won’t be any less effective. Last year, Richard Stursberg, former president and CEO of Cancom, suggested that Global and Rogers Communications Inc would be the perfect fit in terms of platforms, connectivity, portals, web-based services and content. He suggested a merger between the two could provide an alternative to powerhouse BCE (CCR Dec. 21/00). "To the extent that we do (worry about access), we are building up the things that the Rogers and ExpressVus of the world need so that we can offer a trade. So we’re saying we’ll be big here and you be big there and we’ll need each other. I think in the end there will be some interdependencies," he points out. He notes as well that many of Global’s "big engines are must-carry services that have never been challenged," which takes some of the pressure off. The market is not skeptical about Global’s attempts at convergence, according to Asper, but rather it is "unused to the company having such a debt load." A priority is to eliminate a third of its $3.1 billion debt by 2005, Asper told shareholders.

Converging Global focuses on content, not concerned about getting into carriage

Broadcast | February 14, 2001

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