TORONTO – Shaw Communications CEO Brad Shaw will be the featured speaker at next month’s Broadcast Executives Society event.
The luncheon is scheduled for 12 noon on February 15, 2011 at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto. Tickets for this event are limited – click here to purchase or for more information.
www.bes.ca
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OTTAWA – A coalition of cultural organizations is pleading with the Federal Court to consider the “devastating” impact that foreign ownership in the telecom and broadcasting industries would have on Canadian culture.
ACTRA, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were granted intervenor status for the Court’s judicial review of the government’s decision to licence wireless provider Globalive, which began on Wednesday. The coalition said that telecom companies “have a responsibility under the Telecommunications Act to strengthen and safeguard Canadian cultural sovereignty”.
“This case raises fundamental questions about the relationship between foreign ownership and Canadian…
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TORONTO – Omnicom Media Group has named Adam Ivers as the new president and CEO of its Toronto-based agency Highway Entertainment.
Ivers joined Highway Entertainment in 2007 and most recently held the role of executive vice president. Prior to Highway, Ivers was VP of programming for the former CanWest Global Broadcasting (now Shaw Media), in addition to stints at International Management Group Canada (IMG) and TSN.
“Adam’s experience in broadcast programming, entrepreneurial approach to deal making and his innate skill for working collaboratively, has resulted in both company growth and new ways of delivering value for our clients in a rapidly evolving…
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CALGARY – While remaining mum on just who the manufacturer is, Shaw Communications says it will launch a new residential media hub/gateway in May.
The new customer premises device (which would replace existing set top boxes) is meant to compete with Telus’ Microsoft Mediaroom-driven Optik TV.
Telus’ TV service offers customers options cable doesn’t, like the ability to remote-program their DVR and multi-room DVR ability – meaning customers can watch shows on any room there is an Optik-connected television. Its more-flexible search functionality lets customers find shows or movies by the name of the actors or directors instead of…
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CALGARY – Buried in the Shaw Communications first quarter results last week was the price the company paid for tiny Lake Broadcasting, a 1,000-subscriber cable system which served Sorrento, B.C.
Shaw paid $3.5 million ($3,500 per subscriber) for the system situated about 75 kms east of Kamloops which was owned by Leigh Hillier.
– Greg O’Brien
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OTTAWA – CTVglobemedia Inc. says that it stands to lose up to $6.5 million in advertising revenue just by airing two public service announcements (PSAs) about the impact of the upcoming digital transition on over-the-air TV viewers.
According to the CRTC’s proposed regulations for the digital TV transition, broadcasters must begin airing the two PSAs no later than March 31, 2011. The first, which must will air six times per day to start and eight times daily beginning one month prior to the shut off, will inform viewers that analog OTA signals will cease on August 31, 2011. At least 25% of the PSAs must run…
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CALGARY – The acquisition of CanWest plus some one time CRTC fees battered Shaw’s first quarter profits, driving them down 82%.
Shaw said Thursday that its net income for the three month period ended November 30, 2010 plunged to $20 million, compared to $114 million for the same period last year. The current period included a $139 million charge for the discounted value of the $180 million CRTC benefit obligation related to the acquisition of CanWest (now Shaw Media), plus a one-time CRTC Part II fee recovery fee. Consolidated revenue of $1.08 billion was up 19% over the comparable period last…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications today confirmed what some were hinting at earlier this week: It will delay the launch of its wireless service until 2012.
In its quarterly results released this morning which show nice revenue spikes but hits on income, Brad Shaw, CEO of the Calgary-based cable and broadcast giant said: "We remain committed to wireless and are excited about the opportunity wireless represents for our company going forward. With the rapid evolution of wireless technology and changing market conditions, we believe it is best to take a disciplined approach to our wireless rollout to ensure we…
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TORONTO – The Canadian broadcast and telecom industries appear to have plenty to say about the proposed merger of Bell and CTV. With comments and interventions due on Tuesday, three weeks in advance of the CRTC hearing, most stakeholders offered their conditional support, but only with safeguards in place to preserve industry competition.
Rogers tied its support of the deal to Bell’s continued opposition to the issue of value-for-signal (a.k.a. fee-for-carriage). Bell, Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw and Telus at one point banded together to challenge the CRTC before the Federal Court of Appeal arguing that the Commission lacks the power…
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OTTAWA – It was good to be a TV distributor in 2010.
That’s the message we see in the CRTC’s aggregate financial data recently posted on the Commission’s web site. Expenses are up (in some cases, way up), but then again, so was revenue, and profits.
• According to the data submitted to the Commission by the big cable and satellite companies for the 2010 broadcast year (ended August 31, 2010), the largest six companies (Shaw, Bell, Rogers, Videotron, Cogeco and Bragg) together earned $12.15 billion in revenue from their video, high speed internet and VOIP telephone services (the data does…
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