Buried under approximately four billion dollars of debt, Canwest Global Communications Corp., owners of the Global Television Network, specialty channels - MovieTime, DejaView and Fox Sports World - and the National Post newspaper, has successfully filed for bankruptcy protection.

The filing did not include CanWest chain of twelve Canadian daily newspapers and their online operations or its specialty channels acquired from Alliance Atlantis in 2007, TVtropolis, Mystery TV or Men TV.



After the proposed restructuring, which is expected to last 4 to 6 months, Canwest says creditors would receive shares of the media company while current shareholders would own just 2.3 per cent of the shares of the new Canwest.

In a written statement posted on the company website, company CEO Leonard Asper said the filing should not affect what Canadians see on the Global Network or read in their daily newspapers.

“Throughout this process, all our operations will continue uninterrupted including a strong programming lineup on Global and our specialty channels,’’ Mr. Asper said.

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