New Canadian firm enters local TV biz

Canadian private investment firm Bluepoint Investment Corp.has agreed to purchase CTV’s Brandon, Man. station for one dollar, the Canadian Press reports.

Bluepoint, a three-month old company, now has its sights set on other unwanted local television stations that it can pick up cheaply.

Colin Berrie, Bluepoint’s CEO said:

“We decided that the media business, right now, despite all the bad news and gloom, is a place that we’d like to play in. We think there’s a tremendous amount of opportunity.”

Shaw Communications offered to buy the Brandon station, along with two others, for one dollar from CTV in May, but later backed out of the deal, noting that even one dollar was too high a price.

The deal for the Brandon station is set to close by Dec. 31.

Berrie added:

“Everything involves risk. We took a look and saw that opportunities were there given market conditions … if done right it can be very successful.”