CW Media Holdings, the operator of HGTV, Showcase and other Canadian specialty channels, said Tuesday that it posted a net loss of $53.3 million in the first-quarter.
The subsidiary of Canwest Global Communications says revenues for the quarter were $106.1 million, with $66.7 million coming from advertising revenues. Subscriber revenue amounted to $38.7 million.
The overall results were affected by foreign exchange losses of $57.1 million.
The results aren’t easily comparable to the year-earlier period, which came just after Canwest purchased Alliance Atlantis and before it got final regulatory approval for the deal.
Instead, CW Media says pro forma results based on internal accounting measures provide “a more complete understanding of the factors and trends affecting the business.’’
The company reported “direct profit” of $66.4 million, up from $63.1 million a year ago, while revenues were up from $97.1 million in the year-earlier period.
Chief financial officer Michael French credited the former Alliance assets with helping Canwest drive advertising results at its own specialty channels, which struggled for years to acheive the success that Alliance had carved with its niche stations.
“The sales operation for the specialty channels that Alliance Atlantis assembled was a far better one than we had,” said French during a conference call. “We were much better at conventional television. We sold the specialities on a package basis, where the (Alliance Atlantis) group are far better at that.’’
In 2011, Canwest plans to shift its conventional TV assets—which include the Global Television and E! networks—to CW Media to combine the operations.
Winnipeg-based Canwest also owns the former Southam big-city local newspapers, the National Post and broadcasting businesses in Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Shares of Canwest closed the day 1.5 cents lower to 46 cents on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
