WHERE IS JIM SHAW? is what CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein wanted to know Wednesday morning when he moseyed into the hearing room in Gatineau and spied the Shaw Communications panel, minus its CEO, facing him.
It’s more than a fair question. The Shaw Communications CEO has lobbed several virtual grenades into Ottawa of late, most notably challenging the existence of the Canadian Television Fund throughout 2007, and then declining to appear at the hearing into the CTF earlier this year – telling a newspaper that since von Finckenstein wasn’t leading that hearing, it amounted to a Commission “B-team” so he didn’t want to appear at it.
That excuse is gone with this hearing as the six-member panel includes the chair and both vice-chairs Len Katz (telecom) and Michel Arpin (broadcasting).
Then, just two days into this hearing examining BDU and specialty services policies, Shaw issued a press release blasting the proceedings and followed that up with a letter to the Prime Minister last week, all but asking for Stephen Harper to intervene in the process, writing that the commissioners were “fumbling towards deepening darkness”, among other things, as we reported here.
Wednesday, though, chairman von Finckenstein was clearly perturbed by the CEO’s absence and made it known right away. “I’m somewhat disappointed in not seeing Mr. Shaw here, given his vociferous views,” he said at the outset. “I have been subject to his criticisms and I would have appreciated dealing with him on these issues one on one,” he told the Shaw panel led by company president Peter Bissonnette and regulatory head Ken Stein.
The chair also made some reference to the B team comment of about two months ago, but we’ll have to wait for the transcripts because we couldn’t quite make it out. We’re not sure if he was calling Bissonnette and the other Shaw folks the B Team.
Our problem with CEO Shaw as a no-show is that both the Calgary-based company and its namesake CEO position themselves as no-nonsense rebels within the industry: They seem to view themselves as western corporate cowboys who stand up to those bureaucrats in Ottawa in defense of its customers. It’s an effective form of marketing and it works well. Shaw customers and their employees get a kick out of that positioning and are quite loyal to the company JR Shaw founded.
Those of us who cover the industry love it when Jim Shaw needles the Ottawa powers that be, or takes a swing at a sacred cow like the CTF. For journalists, it’s a good story. And it’s fun for us. We almost missed a flight last week because we were busy posting our story on Shaw’s juicy note to the PM.
But at some point, actually at this point, firing long range missiles from Alberta into Ottawa-Gatineau just isn’t good enough. This is a hearing into the policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings and specialty services – and Shaw is the biggest distributor of them all in Canada, with over three million customers, counting Shaw Cable and DTH division Star Choice. Decisions made from this proceeding will have a direct impact on Shaw’s business and the company CEO should have been here to stand behind his views and speak to the issues in person.
Ted Rogers made it. So did Leonard Asper, Ivan Fecan, Pierre Karl Péladeau, Louis Audet and a number of other CEOs. They all came, faced the commissioners, cameras and sometimes tough, uncomfortable questions.
We asked Bissonnette, who along with Stein presented a feisty defense of the company’s positions on the issues, why his CEO didn’t make it to Gatineau and the answer was, basically, he had other stuff to do.
Now, I feel a little presumptious opining on what the CEO of a multi-billion dollar corporatiuon should be doing with his time but at a hearing this important to his company, with all that’s at stake and especially given the strong personal feelings he has expressed on the proceedings and the Commission in general, the fact he didn’t show up was galling.
If Shaw wants his criticisms to be taken absolutely seriously by those in power, he should have been here today. Too often, the company’s arguments are one-sided PR missives where Shaw fires off a release, or a letter like last week’s, and the Commission, because it’s in the middle of a hearing (or just because it’s the Commission), can’t or won’t respond publicly.
It was easy to sense that many in the audience, and likely those on the commissioner panel, wanted direct answers to direct questions from Jim Shaw himself.
What it boils down to is something rather basic that says, if you’re going to act the cowboy and provoke a gunfight, you’ve got to show up in the town square when the sun hits high noon.
