Corus buys CLT specialty TV channel
Television viewers were treated to another shuffle of specialty channels yesterday when Corus Entertainment Inc. announced it’s buying Canadian Learning Television from CTVglobemedia for $73 million.
The analogue channel is expected to shift into the hands of Corus if the transaction receives approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
"We are convinced that with the access to over five million households that CLT currently enjoys, we have the know-how and experience to build on the success the network has achieved thus far," Corus CEO John Cassaday said in a statement.
CLT, a lower-profile specialty channel that launched in 1999, calls itself the "only national educational television specialty service" with programming "designed to challenge and inform, enrich and educate."
Its current lineup includes reruns of the TV drama The West Wing, documentaries and independent films instant payday loan. Other programming is related to university courses.
CTVglobemedia gained ownership of the station through the $1.4 billion buyout of CHUM Ltd. last year, which included 19 specialty channels such as MuchMusic, Bravo, Space and CP24.
The company, which also owns the CTV television network and The Globe and Mail, then sold some of the assets acquired with CHUM, including its 50 per cent interest in French-language themed music video stations MusiquePlus and MusiMax.
The CRTC also forced the company to shed five Citytv stations, which CTVglobemedia sold to Rogers Communications Inc. for $375 million, because they were in cities with competing CTV stations.
Filed under: economics by Pascal