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).

[3] Frank Griffiths established Western Broadcasting Company Ltd. in the late 1950s to hold his various broadcasting assets in British Columbia, including radio station CKNW and a majority interest in BCTV, at the time Vancouver's CTV affiliate, and in 1963 added Victoria's CHEK, which became BCTV's sister station.

Over time, WIC would acquire various broadcasting assets from other companies, including Selkirk Communications – the other major shareholder of BCTV, and also the owner of independent stations CHCH-TV Hamilton and CFAC-TV (now CICT-TV) Calgary – as well as Charles Allard's company Allarcom, which had launched CITV-TV Edmonton and pay television service Superchannel.

In 1997, wanting to exit the broadcasting business, the Griffiths agreed to sell WIC to Shaw Communications.

However, in Montreal, where CanWest chose to keep its existing Global station CKMI, the company was required to divest CFCF, and eventually sold it to CTV.

CanWest also retained WIC's interest in Report on Business Television; it was subsequently sold to rival Bell Globemedia when that company acquired The Globe and Mail, which owned the remainder.

In Vancouver and Victoria, Canwest's acquisition of CHAN set off one of the largest single-market network association shakeups in North American television history.

While the acquisition was important to fill in some of the gaps of the Global network in western Canada, it eventually proved to be something of a Pyrrhic victory.

Canwest fell into bankruptcy protection in 2009 under the weight of debt from various acquisitions including WIC, but more critically the larger purchases of the Southam newspaper chain and the broadcasting assets of Alliance Atlantis.

The sale, which was intended to help fund Shaw Communications' purchase of Wind Mobile, required shareholder and CRTC approval, but closed less than three months later, on April 1, 2016.

[2][6] At the time Corus also owned WIC's former pay television properties (by then known as Movie Central and Encore Avenue), but the company had announced in late 2015 it would sell those services' subscriber base and programming rights to Bell Media's The Movie Network, which took effect on March 1, 2016 (TMN was later renamed to Crave after a streaming service of the same name).

The WIC library of programming would ultimately form the initial basis of Canwest's ill-fated second broadcast service, CH (later E!).

This relationship deteriorated even further in 1997, when rival Baton Broadcasting became the sole corporate owner of CTV, and opened its own independent station, CIVT, in Vancouver.

For example, under WIC's ownership, CHAN used the brand BCTV, with CICT being known as Calgary 7 and CKRD Red Deer as RDTV.