Toronto Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias holds forth on the rumours swirling around Bellglobemedia -- the parent company of my employer, CTV.

And then The Globe and Mail, another Bell Globemedia property, reports on BCE chief executive Michael Sabia's remarks on the issue from Banff.

An excerpt from the Star story:

Monday morning, there in big black type across the front of the National Post, "Thomson Wants CTV." That headed a story on how billionaire Ken Thomson's Woodbridge Co., which owns 31.5 per cent of Bell Globemedia, was getting nowhere with a $1.5 billion bid for the rest of the company.

"Apparently," the Post qualified in the third paragraph, "BCE has neither rejected nor approved the offer, but has simply not responded."

As one Globe and Mail Report on Business journalist told me, "It was like a bomb went off in our newsroom. It's not a story we wanted to get beat on."

No kidding, especially since Globe/CTV rival CanWest Global Communications owns the Post.

Except nobody really beat anybody: It was not news that Thomson's holding company has been after the remainder of Bell Globemedia for months, if not years.

The timing of the story was also a mystery because there was no reason to dredge it up now. "It's just mischief," a well-placed insider told me. Speculation is that Woodbridge leaked it to light a fire under BCE.

And here's Sabia from The Globe:

Speculation that BGM might be on the auction block resurfaced this week. Sources say Woodbridge was in talks two months ago to buy BCE's controlling stake in BGM, but the negotiations did not progress.

“Timing is not the issue,” Mr. Sabia said in his presentation to the conference.

“When we move on this, we'll move in a way that suits the strategic interests of the company, that suits the financial interests of the company.... If opportunities present themselves, we'll be open to those opportunities.”

The performance of the BGM assets has improved since BCE bought them in 2000, according to BCE.

The unit's margins have climbed to 22 per cent from 9 per cent in the period, according to Mr. Sabia. BGM last year reported a 4.2-per-cent increase in revenue to $1.42-billion, outpacing a 1-per-cent gain at Bell Canada.

“The thrust of what I said earlier, what's important here, is these assets are performing very well, there's no timeline [to sell] in my mind,” Mr. Sabia said in the interview.