UPDATE 1-Goldman group wants court to pull Shaw-Canwest buy

* Group wants court to set aside Shaw purchase agreement

* Wants another stab at buying Canwest TV unit

* Threatens litigation if appeal not heard

VANCOUVER, March 10 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) on Wednesday asked a Canadian court to give it and its partners another shot at winning the broadcast assets of bankrupt Canwest Global Communications Corp CGS.V.

The Wall Street investment bank asked Ontario's highest court to hear its appeal to overturn a Feb. 19 lower court decision that okays Canadian cable company Shaw Communications Inc's (SJRb.TO) purchase of Canwest's TV arm.

In a damning 30-page filing, Goldman Sachs said the lower court "utterly failed in its duty to ensure that basic principles of fair play and procedural due process" are being adhered to when it approved the Shaw bid.

Goldman Sachs submitted an unsuccessful 11th hour bid for Canwest's broadcast arm along with consortium partners Catalyst Capital and members of Canwest's founding Asper family.

The court approved Shaw's C$95 million ($92 million) offer for at least 20 percent of Canwest's TV assets in a deal that also gives it 80 percent of the voting shares. The Goldman-Catalyst consortium offered C$120 million for 32 percent of the assets.

Goldman is a partner in Canwest's specialty TV assets after helping the media group acquire channels such as History Television and Food Network Canada from Alliance Atlantis in 2007 for C$2.3 billion.

Unlike Canwest's conventional TV holdings, like Global Television, the specialty channels are profitable and are not in creditor protection.

Goldman has complained for months that it is being left out of Canwest's restructuring process.

It said the court proceedings have become a vehicle "not for a bona fide restructuring of Canwest, but for the noteholders to achieve (their) commercial objective."

If the appeal court did not intervene it promised to "continue down a path of acrimonious and time-consuming litigation".

The Canwest media empire has struggled for survival after a rapid rise to glory trapped it under a debt load of about C$4 billion. It filed for creditor protection for its television operations in October.

Much of its debt woes date back to 2000 when it bought the newspaper chain owned by former press baron Conrad Black's Hollinger Group for C$3.2 billion.

The sale of Canwest's TV assets is separate from a process to sell its newspaper arm, which is also in bankruptcy protection. The papers that may be sold off include the National Post and Vancouver Sun. ($1=$1.02 Canadian) (Reporting by Nicole Mordant; editing by Janet Guttsman)