CALGARY – The Shaw family purchased a million shares of their own company this week, which would have cost them about $19.5 million.
A month ago, it would have cost them about $25 million, but the stock price – along with many on the TSX, has drifted downwards in the past 30 days. Rogers Communications has dropped from $45 to $38 over the same time frame and Cogeco Cable has tumbled from $48 to the $39 range as well.
The Shaw family now holds 47,669,356 Class A and Class B shares of their company.
www.shaw.ca
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HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of new dollars could pour into the Canadian television system under a new fee-for-carriage plan proposed by Canada’s two main private broadcast networks.
Rivals CTVglobemedia and Canwest made a little history Friday by filing a joint submission to the CRTC’s review of its policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and satellite companies) and specialty services. Those hearings are set to begin April 7th.
Saying conventional television – thanks to the ever-increasing rate of audience fragmentation driven by specialty services and new media outlets – is in “crisis”, the broadcasters want the Commission to add a subscriber…
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YOU’D THINK THAT headline is just common sense, given the glut of propaganda on Facebook but visitors to the social network site of late have been faced with ads from a company called iPhonenow.ca which promises to sell you an Apple iPhone for $549 that will work in Canada.
They offer “Extreme Limited Quantities” and promise delivery in three to six weeks. The web site also says “telephone support is extremely limited,” so don’t go looking for any help when you try to unlock a phone that both Apple and Rogers aren’t willing or able to offer in Canada…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s Videotron now has over 636,000 local telephony customers, the company announced this morning.
Three years to the day of the company’s launch of the service, the cable company’s voice over IP phone customer list continues to grow at a pretty amazing rate.
Powered by a very low price, at year end, there were more than 636,000 residential and business subscribers to Videotron cable telephone service, a year-over-year increase of 238,500, or 60%, announced the company.
In 2006, there was a net increase of nearly 235,000 in the number of consumers who opted for it. Between…
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TORONTO – The speed at which change arrives and is being forced on everyone in the media space is still so breathtaking that hard and fast answers on what we must do today, tomorrow and well beyond are still pretty elusive.
After listening to some strategy, regulatory and technical sessions at this week’s annual Canadian Broadcast Distribution Association conference (formerly the Canadian Satellite Users Association), those were my conclusions, anyway.
The last 12 months have born witness to four large mergers: CanWest now owns Alliance Atlantis; CTVglobemedia runs the former CHUM channels; Rogers has Citytv; and Telesat got together…
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TORONTO – Bell Canada has rallied to form a group of Canadian organizations to address a widening shortage of IT professionals. The Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s IT Skills plans to work together to ensure the country retains healthy IT workforce by addressing factors contributing to the shortage.
“If left uncontested, the IT skills gap will create gaps in our economic performance, gaps in our productivity, and gaps in our ability to compete globally. It is in everyone’s interest to close those gaps as quickly as possible,” said Bell Enterprise Group president Stephane Boisvert, who is the coalition spokesperson.
The…
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I’VE NEVER BEEN ONE to fear large corporations. I don’t think big oil is out to get anyone. I don’t think fast food chains want to kill their customers with fat. I don’t think chemical companies sell lawn fertilizer that will blind the neighbour’s cat.
And I don’t think big media companies are out to tell the world what to think. With the level of competition we have, that’s impossible anyway.
I do think that by their very nature, however, big companies, especially publicly traded ones, can be selfish. They can be cutthroat, to be sure, but also a little…
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MONTREAL – Two potential buyers signalled enough interest in financially strapped Quebec television network TQS this week to convince a Quebec Superior Court judge to give the network another 45 days of court protection from creditors.
Judge Pierre Journet said the receipt of two letters of intention from the two unnamed suitors was an indication that TQS’s financial situation has not worsened to the detriment of creditors, and that a further delay constitutes a “reasonable and credible” condition to finding a long-term solution.
TQS was granted 30 days’ protection in December. The new delay gives controller RSM Richter…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC told Rogers Broadcasting this morning that it doesn’t think Parry Sound can support any more radio stations.
It denied the company’s application for a broadcasting licence to operate an new rock format FM station in the cottage country town of about 5,800 people.
“After considering the positions of the parties in this proceeding, the Commission finds that the primary issue arising from this application relates to the Parry Sound commercial radio market and its ability to sustain an additional radio station,” says the Commission decision.
There’s only one radio station in Parry Sound itself, Haliburton Broadcasting’s…
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MISSISSAUGA – The Canadian Satellite Users Association (CSUA) will be changing its name to the Canadian Broadcast Distribution Association, effective next week.
The new name, and acronym – CBDA – better reflects the work mandate of the association over the recent years.
“The mandate has shifted from a focus solely on the satellite distribution networks to all the distribution platforms available to broadcasters to deliver their signals,” said Chris Bell, chairman of CSUA. “The expanding mandate has attracted interest from non-satellite distributors with both Rogers and Telus members of the association, “ added Gordon Lee, vice-chair.
“The annual conference…
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