A BRIDGE IS A musical term meaning a bit of a song which gets you from the verse back to the chorus. We thought the term was a good one to characterize Peter Bissonnette, an accomplished musician, as well as the outgoing president of Shaw Communications (his official last day was yesterday).
Bissonnette has worked in cable for more than 30 years, the last 25 of which for Shaw Communications. He’s been president of the company since 2000, working under company founder JR, and then both his sons, Jim and Brad Shaw – and has much prior experience working for other cable founding families.
When Rogers Communications purchased Western Cablevision (where he worked at the time) from the McDonald family in the early 1980s, Bissonnette was the bridge between those two families, helping run the Western division for Rogers. After five years with Rogers working for Ted and his co-pilot Phil Lind, Bissonnette went to work for Shaw and over the years was often the bridge between the two family-run companies when Rogers and Shaw had to work together on technology or systems sales and swaps or on regulatory filings. Then, when Jim Shaw stepped down as CEO of Shaw Communications in late 2010, thrusting younger brother Brad Shaw into the top job a bit earlier than planned, Bissonnette was again the bridge, providing a helping hand on the tiller as that transition happened. He even took over the company’s regulatory department through 2014-15, steering it through the Let’s Talk TV proceeding.
“Peter has been instrumental in Shaw’s growth, leading the way as we grew from a Western Canadian cable operator to Canada’s leading network and content experience company. He has been at the helm of many of our major growth initiatives including the launch of Internet and phone, the acquisition of Canwest, and most recently, the collaborative approach he brought to the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV initiative,” said Brad Shaw in a memo to staff last week recognizing Bissonnette’s departure.
“An inspiring leader and friend, Peter leaves a lasting legacy at Shaw with his passion for our people and our customers. We could not have had a person that exemplifies the Shaw Values as much as Peter does and are deeply thankful for all he’s done. We would not be the company we are today without Peter’s incredible influence and no acknowledgement can fully do justice to the impact he has made and the mentorship he has provided to so many of us at Shaw,” he added.
“He’s an outstanding individual. He is thoughtful, analytical, he’s action-driven. There’s not much to complain about with Peter Bissonnette and he’s very good at the regulatory front,” said Rogers Communications vice-chairman Phil Lind, “and he’s a super guy. He gets along with people and motivates people and it’s one of the reasons he’s been at Shaw so long.”
“He’s a good dealmaker, too, because he can see the other side of things. In other words, he goes into a deal and he knows what Shaw’s position is – but he also knows the other’s position and he always tries to make things come into some sort of harmony – and that’s not always the case with negotiators. They usually fight so hard for their position that they forget about what the other guy wants – so he’s really good at that as well,” said Lind.
So what does Peter Bissonnette, who is staying on as a member of Shaw’s board of directors, remember most about his time in the cable, broadband and media business in Canada as his time as an operator comes to a close? We recently interviewed him and what follows is an edited transcript.
Greg O’Brien: You’re retiring… following through on the threat.
Peter Bissonnette: It’s hard to actually say that because it’s such an exciting time for our industry, but I will still be in the Shaw board. I’ve been with Shaw for 26 years now and it certainly has been transformative and has been an absolute pleasure to work for the Shaw family.
GOB: When I want to remember how the industry has changed, I think back towards our first meeting, I think it was in the winter of 1998 when (Shaw Cable) still owned Richmond Hill.
PB: Yes. I had moved to Toronto actually.
GOB: Right. And at the time though too, the company wanted to buy out The Score – or Headline Sports, as it was called back then.
PB: We owned part of it.
GOB: You owned a bit and you wanted the rest I believe and the CRTC told you no then because they didn’t want carriers owning much content.
PB: I know!
GOB: Oh, how times have changed.
PB: The world has changed… essentially, other than CBC, everybody’s vertically integrated.
GOB: The CBC and the few independents we still have.
PB: It’s just changed so dramatically, but the regulatory environment today reminds me of what it was many years ago when it went into a period of quiescence, but now it’s almost becoming overly regulated again. The new standards, the new vertically integrated code and the new ombudsman and all these committees that we’re on… it’s all driven, of course, by preserving the rights of the consumer, which we do anyway because it’s part of being competitive. The consumer always has to come first, and whether it really belongs in the regulatory regime or in a regulatory realm or not, we conduct ourselves that way, because if you don’t, your customers can find alternatives.
GOB: I run my own business and you either respond to what customers want or you don’t have a business anymore. You start to lose money and cut back and lay people off and things go badly. If you’re not a customer-focused business, you’re not in business.
"When I started in the industry, it was a regulated business and a regulated monopoly business and it’s certainly not that today." – Peter Bissonnette
PB: Oh absolutely. I was chatting with Brad (Shaw, CEO) and Jay (Mehr, COO)… and we were saying we face a very compelling competitor as well in the west and the benefactor of that of course is customers. I mean, our investments are all driven towards providing customers with more than they’ve ever had before in a way that they’ve never had it, which is a wonderful thing. When I started in the industry, it was a regulated business and a regulated monopoly business and it’s certainly not that today.
GOB: You can get video anywhere.
PB: You can and you will and they are – and there still is the notion that one day everything will come over the top and technically it could happen. Whether or not it makes sense economically for customers, certainly is a question, but it’s all about adding value and creating value and the perception of value as well. Again, I still think many, many of our customers still want to get as much as they can and have as much value as they can – and that’s reflected in the way our services are packaged.
GOB: People have always wanted more and more and more video too. It doesn’t matter how they get it. They’ve always wanted more, not less.
PB: When I started we had 12 channels, and just got into the mid-band so we were quite delighted we were going to have another 14 channels but what were we going to fill them with? That’s when movie networks were licensed, Much, TSN, all those guys were licensed and customers couldn’t get enough. We used to hear the complaint then, ‘why do I have to pay for things I don’t want?’ and that was part of the underlying message in Let’s Talk TV – how do we actually address that now with technology that can allow us to do it.
GOB: Cable’s reasoning back then is with the filters or the traps or whatever you want to call them, they could only siphon off certain chunks of MHz They couldn’t siphon off one channel at a time. But now…
PB: It was Cro-Magnon switching is what we used to call it. The best day that ever happened in the industry is when all of those traps were gone and we actually had digital technologies which are becoming more and more sophisticated that allow us to provide a much more fine-tuned, tailored, service to our customers…
I’ve had a great career… and I’ve worked with some unbelievably wonderful people. I think of Michael D’Avella and Ken Stein and that group. And of course the Shaw family themselves have been just so wonderful. I love the fact that they ask what do you think – and as a senior executive somebody asking you what do you think really is a wonderful question because it’s an opportunity that really can add value.
In terms of other companies, when I think of Phil Lind, he was almost Shaw-like. He was such a wonderful guy and I felt privileged to work for him and some of the folks over there, but the Shaw family, we have 14,000 employees now and our culture is very, very, very unique. It’s been wonderful to be able to mentor and to work with folks like that.
GOB: How many people were there when you started?
PB: We had 400 in our company, we had about 300,000 customers, but $100 million in sales. We have 14,400 employees now, several million customers and we have an unbelievable array of services – and the hardest thing for me leaving is that the future looks so bright.
I think of Jay Mehr running our operations, our chief operating guy – when he started, he was a sales manager in Edmonton and he’s worked his way through our company. He came out to Richmond Hills just as I was leaving and has all the attributes of a leader. He and Brad work so well together with the team and we’ve got new blood in the company as well as the experience in the company. We’re blessed to have Jim Little as our marketing guy and of course a new CFO in Vito Culmone and the new regulatory guy in Morgan (Elliott) who’s going to do a great job for us.
PB: I’ve enjoyed what you do in terms of really serving our industry.
GOB: Thanks. I see myself as more or less a service provider. I like to think of Carttt.ca as sort of the community newspaper of the industry, if you know what I mean.
PB: Well, I hope you’re at the community programming hearing because I was talking to somebody the other day about what a legacy that is and how important it is to our customers in areas where they’re underserved by broadcasters. So, I’m certainly hoping that we continue to focus on that and that the Commission sees the power of community programming that means so much. I think of customers in Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder Bay where there is no local programming other than what we offer. Across Canada, you think of the number of community channels that are filling that gap of programming.
GOB: When you look back Peter, any sort of best moments or big highlights that you like to think of?
PB: I’ve had so many in terms of who I work with. Clearly, working with Jim and now Brad and before that JR. Some of the deals we’ve done in the mid-90s when we were acquiring cable systems like Classicom, CUC, and Cablecasting – to the point where we had more new employees than new customers in our company than we had existing and I moved to Toronto to integrate those operations.
"But the deal in 2000 with Rogers was, from an industry point of view, a big moment because it really did consolidate west and east in much more meaningful ways so we can promote ourselves to our customers and they understood who we are." – Bissonnette
But the deal in 2000 with Rogers was, from an industry point of view, a big moment because it really did consolidate west and east in much more meaningful ways so we can promote ourselves to our customers and they understood who we are. The CanWest deal was obviously a big one. That was when we became truly vertically integrated.
Before that, our whole involvement with @Home as a North America-wide branding exercise where we took advantage of caching and technology to offer services. Ultimately, we realized the technologies that were being used and deployed weren’t enough to satisfy the needs of our customers and so we went on our own and branded ourselves as Shaw internet and built the capability to actually scale.
That whole wonderful period of growth in internet, –those were the years when we had double-digit growth year over year, and then when we got in the telephone business and we had the same kind of growth. We’re now in a much more mature business and we’re looking, obviously at diversification when you look at our buying ViaWest and getting into the data center business, which… does have synergies with our existing business, but has much more growth upside.
GOB: Before cable you were with BC Tel and you were in the Army for a while…
PB: I was with Rogers for five years and a day (after it purchased Western Cablevision) and that’s when I got a chance to work with Phil and Ted. Before that I was with BC Tel for 13 years in the network side of things and on the technical side of things, and before that in the Royal Canadian Air Force.
It’s funny, I’ve come full circle. I’m now an honorary captain in the Navy and I had been in the Navy reserve before I 
joined the Air Force. So, I’ve really enjoyed that role. I’m in part of the Marpac (Maritime Forces Pacific)… and trying to do what we can as a civilian bridge if you will between the military and Canadians. So, I’ve really enjoyed being associated with the Royal Canadian Navy. There are a number of honorary captains… who typically leading business people within their regions. I’ve met some wonderful people in Vancouver and through my Navy affiliations.
GOB: And that’s more like sort of a community-to-Navy liaison thing?
PB: Exactly… Because I’m on the media side, my mandate within the Navy is to provide media coverage (which he recently did in Vancouver with Global TV aboard the HMCS Calgary) and it’s wonderful because as Canadians we’re blessed to have a Navy that actually is technologically sound. It can always use improvement and investment in those kinds of things is important. When you’re virtually surrounded by oceans, it’s important to understand what the Navy does in terms of providing free access for trade and all the things that Canada relies on for trade are essentially provided for through the Navy.
GOB: Again looking back, has there been anything you could characterize as something that was really surprising?
PB: Well, when you think back to the Maclean-Hunter days when Rogers was buying Maclean-Hunter, we were growing in certain areas of the country, but with Maclean-Hunter Shaw was sort of the perceived white knight in terms of our role within what was taking place within the industry. We ended up getting some really critical pieces of our growth opportunities came through that and then ultimately attracted others to look at Shaw as being a company that they’d love to sell to.
I look at CUC (Trillium Cable), where I think Rogers would have looked at that as being obviously a natural adjunct to Rogers in the east.
Seeing the power of relationships and how important they are – and seeing JR and then Jim and now Brad and how they look to relationships as really vital and partnerships and the way that we grow, whether in our dealings with industry players. You know, we’re part of CableLabs, so we have some pretty solid relationships in Canada and the U.S. and how important those are in terms of our future. As JR used to say, ‘never leave a table you can’t come back to’, and that goes to respect and how important relationships are. And so for me, growing as a leader I’ve had wonderful mentors and seeing the power of relationships is a part of that.
GOB: That sort of goes to how the future might be unfolding before our eyes right now when you look at the shomi partnership with Rogers and how you’re testing out the X1 platform from Comcast where Brad even said on your last conference that Shaw’s days of being an engineering leader and building all of its own stuff looks to be over, that you need to do more partnering and collaborating and thinking beyond because as big as Shaw is in Canada, globally, you’re not very big.
PB: Absolutely. You can’t do it on your own. We’re at a point now where whether you’re looking at IP transformation, if you’re looking at how we become the providers of providers and look to partnerships… to fill really important gaps in skillsets.
"Brilliant minds working on behalf of similar interests can be very, very powerful." – Bissonnette
With Comcast, they’ve got 3,000 engineers working just on those kinds of applications. We don’t have the scale to do that… Working together, collaboratively – through our involvement with CableLabs, I know Rogers is a member, and Cogeco. Brilliant minds working on behalf of similar interests can be very, very powerful.
When you think about 1980 when we had I don’t know how many small individual companies trying to make it in this business and to how we do things now, it’s wonderful. You actually can have a real impact, whether it’s integrating fibre into our networks, the new network designs, how we’re transforming ourselves and moving into an IP world and over-the-top. The shomi relationship is really important in terms of providing a Canadian alternative that is very powerful and is based on what we all bring to the party, whether it’s programming content or distribution techniques. It will continue to be a really important part of how we ultimately serve our customers.
GOB: It seems in the past 18 months, there’s been a mix of good old Shaw and the new Shaw where on one side, you’re partnering with Comcast and Rogers, but at the same time, you’ve led the way on the media side in terms of busting up the old silos inside – and then on the cable side you’ve broken home phone out of the bundle, which is something none of the other cable peers have done.
PB: Selling customers what they want as opposed to selling them a bundle of products that maybe they want two of, not three… is being fine-tuned in terms of what our customers really want. We want to sell phone to customers who want phone, but we don’t want to give customers phone service if they don’t use it, because then it becomes a drag in terms of the value proposition. They go, ‘you know I don’t really like that phone’ and then they start questioning whether they really like the internet or the bundles that they happen to have on video. So, it’s really being really fine-tuned in terms of what our customers want.
GOB: Where do you see this business going in the next little while?
PB: I see customers looking back saying you know what? I really have a wonderful array of services that truly is valued and I see the value becoming even more apparent as more over the top services become available and people go ‘wow, we used to bundle that for X dollars and now it’s X plus.’ I think the value proposition is going to become more apparent in time as customers look at their alternatives.
If you look at how everybody wants to go over the top, whether it’s in Canada or in the U.S. with an a la carte model – and the cost of those over the tops is $9 or $10 a pop. When you’ve got five or six of them and you look at what you 
can get in terms of some of the packages that are offered currently by distributors, the value proposition really becomes more apparent.
Then I look at our WiFi strategy and how important that is to customers that really are looking for alternate ways of receiving services. I know that our competitors look at it as being really a lot of nothing. It’s a lot of something. It’s a very significant strategy and we’re building a very significant network. I see WiFi becoming even more and more important because it could also provide all sorts of other opportunities in terms of backhaul and those types of things.
GOB: Remember the days where the 750 MHz rebuild was supposed to be the end of it?
PB: I remember the 330 stretch rebuild in 1982 or ’83 we’re going, wow we’re going to build up to 330, we’ll never have to build again. Now we continue to invest in fiber, we continue to invest in technology and techniques… That won’t end.
GOB: What are you going to do next, besides be on the board I mean?
PB: I’m on the board. I’m also a musician. I bought a wonderful new mixing board in my studio that is the leading edge. I continue to enjoy music production and photography… there’s lots of creative things that are going on. I have a wonderful wife and she doesn’t golf now but I’m sure we’ll do some golfing… I don’t want to ever be retired and becoming a “used-to” guy. I want to still be vital and enjoy all the wonderful things that are happening in Canada, as a consumer, as well as an advocate.
