Western International Communications
WIC Western International Communications Ltd.[a] (or WIC) was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via a majority interest in Canadian Satellite Communications (or Cancom).
"Allarcom" redirects here. Not to be confused with Allarco Entertainment.Company type
1982
2000
Assets sold to Canwest Global (later Shaw Media), Shaw Communications, and Corus Entertainment
Corus Entertainment (most media assets)
Rogers Communications (satellite distribution assets)
Specialty channels, broadcasting, satellite distribution
The company itself was acquired by CanWest Global Communications, which kept most of WIC's broadcast television stations and a variety of related television production assets. As a result of a takeover battle leading up to the acquisition, Shaw Communications assumed WIC's interest in Cancom, while a separate company owned by the same Shaw family, Corus Entertainment, acquired various radio stations and specialty services. A handful of assets would be acquired by other companies for competitive reasons.
With the sale of Canwest's broadcasting assets to Shaw a decade later, the Shaw family at that point controlled almost all of the assets of the former WIC – through either Shaw or Corus – the sole exceptions being a handful of resold local TV stations and specialty channel assets, including interests in Family Channel (currently owned by WildBrain) and ROBTv (now BNN Bloomberg, owned by Bell Media). Corus acquired Shaw Media in 2016, giving Corus the former media assets of WIC, such as its former local television, specialty services, and radio groups.[2] Shaw Communications, including the former Cancom, was acquired by Rogers Communications in 2023.[3]
Assets[edit]
Television stations[edit]
WIC was primarily an ownership group, not a television network. Some WIC stations were network affiliates of CBC or CTV, while others operated as independent stations, although some of these stations also had program supply agreements with CanWest. At the same time however, WIC produced or purchased Canadian rights to enough programs to fill the schedule of CHCH (which had no third-party programming source), and many of these programs, including the newscast Canada Tonight and foreign programming such as Touched by an Angel, aired on other WIC stations. The WIC library of programming would ultimately form the initial basis of Canwest's ill-fated second broadcast service, CH (later E!).
At the time of its sale to CanWest, WIC owned the following stations. The year WIC first acquired control of each station, and the programming carried by each station immediately prior to the breakup of the company, is also noted.