TORONTO - CTV has accepted an offer by Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw to buy two stations in Ontario and a third in Manitoba, the broadcaster said Thursday.
CTV head Ivan Fecan said the company has accepted the offer of $1 per station by Shaw (TSX:SJR.B), Canada's second-biggest cable TV operator.
"Cable is rolling in money and can obviously afford to underwrite the losses. Good for them," Ivan Fecan, president and CEO of CTVglobemedia and CEO of CTV, said in a statement.
"I'm sure they will live up to the existing conditions of licence placed on these stations which is wonderful news for the employees and for the people of Windsor, Wingham and Brandon."
Calls to Shaw were not immediately returned.
Conventional broadcasters have struggled in recent months, hit hard by the recession and the popularity of the speciality channels.
CTV and other Canadian broadcasters have asked the CRTC to let them charge cable companies for the right to carry their signals, something called fee for carriage.
The networks have said the CRTC's decision last fall to deny fee-for-carriage charges - which are essentially subscriber fees - would have pumped up to $300 million in additional money into the broadcast industry.
However Shaw has been sharply critical of the idea.
At fiery CRTC hearings, Shaw was a vocal critic of fee-for-carriage, which he said would only increase consumer cable bills.
The deal includes a station in Brandon, Man., and CTV's A Channel stations in Wingham and Windsor, Ont.
CTV had said it would not seek to renew the licences for the two southwestern Ontario A Channel stations when they expire at the end of August.
The company was also looking at either selling or closing the Brandon station.
The CTV had filed regulatory documents with the CRTC saying that the A Channels have continued to be a money-losing enterprise for the company since they were acquired from CHUM Ltd. in 2007.
