Izzy Asper was executive chairman of CanWest Global Communications, a multimedia company based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which controls the Global Television Network as well as interests in production, distribution, international television, and newspaper publishing.

Asper’s career began in law and politics. In 1964 he was called to the Manitoba bar and established himself as an expert on tax law. From 1966 to 1977, Asper wrote a nationally syndicated newspaper column on taxation, and in 1970 he authored a book critical of the federal government’s tax reform proposals. He was named queen’s counsel in 1975. Asper also pursued a political career. From 1970 to 1975, he was leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party and from 1972 to 1975 sat in opposition as a member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly.

In the early 1970s, Asper turned to broadcasting, as he and partner Paul Morton set up Winnipeg independent television station CKND. In 1974 Asper became involved in a financial package to salvage a Toronto-based station, Global Television. Global Television, located in the Toronto-Hamilton corridor, Canada’s richest media market, soon became the flagship of a new programming service that supplied Asper’s other stations, mostly located in western Canada, with a mixture of Canadian-originated content and top-rated U.S. shows. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Asper continued to acquire other broadcasting assets in an attempt to construct a national television network.

By 1986, however, disputes had erupted between Asper and his partners. The disputes were resolved in 1989, when the Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench ordered that the contentious partnerships be dissolved and the assets auctioned to the former partners. Asper emerged victorious from this “corporate shoot-out” as head of a new entity called CanWest Global Communications Corporation.

Upon assuming control of CanWest Global, Asper was able to pursue his goal of creating Canada’s third national television network (after the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation [CBC] and Canadian Television [CTV]). He achieved this goal in 2000 with the acquisition of the over-the-air assets of WIC Western International Communication. This effectively transformed Global Television into a full-fledged national network consisting of 11 stations reaching 88 percent of the Canadian population.

Asper, however, did not confine his vision to television or limited his ambitions to Canada only. Under his direction, CanWest assumed an international profile. As of 2001, it owned TV3 and TV4 in New Zealand as well as 57.5 percent of Australia’s Ten Network. In 2001 it also held a 45-percent equity stake in the Republic of Ireland’s TV3 and a 29.9-percent equity stake in UTV (Ulster, Northern Ireland). In 1998 CanWest also acquired Fireworks Entertainment (producer of such programs as Relic Hunter, Queen of Swords, and Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda), and in 2000 it acquired the assets of Endemol International Distribution. These moves supply CanWest with Canadian content that can also be sold on the international market. In 1999 Asper became executive chairman of CanWest Global while his son Leonard became president and chief executive officer.

Asper’s broadcasting career was characterized by an evolving vision and a willingness to seize opportunities. He shifted the broadcasting system away from central Canada (Toronto and Montreal) toward the west and even to other parts of the world. He was pragmatic in producing content that can both meet Canadian regulatory requirements and reach an international audience, and he positioned CanWest not just as a broadcaster but also as a producer and distributor able to seek synergies across platforms.