MONTREAL – Not surprisingly, Quebecor-owned Videotron was the first TV service provider to trumpet the arrival of the Sun News Network, also owned by Quebecor, which launched nationally Monday afternoon.
Canada’s newest all-news channel, a re-brand of the over-the-air Sun TV in Ontario and simltaneously a digital specialty channel elsewhere, “is poised to shake up the Canadian news media landscape”, according to Videotron’s news release. With a mixture of “hard news” by day and “straight talk” by night, the network features talent such as Charles Adler, Ezra Levant, Theo Caldwell, Brian Lilley, Krista Erickson, Pat Bolland, Alex Pierson and David Akin.
“The network is…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has asked the CRTC to drop the requirement that Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct be kept structurally separate.
In an application filed with the Commission, Shaw calls the 14-year old regulations “unnecessary in view of Canada’s competitive market for broadcasting distribution.” The rules were first introduced in 1997 when Shaw acquired DTH service Homestar, later christened Star Choice, and now known as Shaw Direct. At that time, they were designed to ensure that no undue preference or advantage passed between the company’s DTH service and Shaw’s cable business.
Shaw says those rules now “discriminate" against Shaw Direct,…
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CALGARY – Facing serious competitive attacks on the TV front as well as rapidly developing global wireless technologies, Shaw Communications said today it is putting the brakes on its wireless network build.
"The competitive environment has moderated revenue growth this year in our core business and presented an increased level of risk to our forecast,” said company CEO Brad Shaw in the company’s press release announcing its quarterly financial results on Wednesday morning.
"With the rapid development of wireless technology, including long-term evolution ("LTE") options, and the dynamics within the wireless industry evolving at a swift pace, we are currently…
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CALGARY – While not entirely applying the brakes, Shaw Communications confirmed Wednesday that it is slowing down the construction of its new wireless cellphone network, despite investing $42.1 million in the initiative in this quarter alone.
That was just one of the surprises from new CEO Brad Shaw while announcing the company’s second quarter financial results. He also confirmed that approximately 550 employee positions were eliminated last month, including 150 at the management level.
But the news wasn’t all bad. Consolidated revenue for the second quarter ended February 28, 2011 was $1.20 billion, up 28.8% over the comparable period last year, which…
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HAMILTON – Cable industry veteran Owen Boris died Saturday night at his home in Hamilton after suffering a heart attack. He was 79.
Boris founded Hamilton’s Mountain Cablevision in 1959 and remained principal owner of the successful cableco for half a century before selling the business to Shaw Communications in July 2009. At that time, Boris told Cartt.ca that he felt that the time was right to retire and to “pass this great history on to someone with more financial muscle.”
Fellow industry veteran JR Shaw described Boris as “truly one of a kind”.
“There’s no one else in the…
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CALGARY – Beginning April 6, Shaw Digital Cable and Shaw Direct customers will be able to access live 3D coverage of the 2011 Masters.
"In the past year, we’ve brought a number of best-in-class sports programming to our customers in 3D including the World Cup, Heritage Classic and Winter Classic," said Peter Bissonnette, president, Shaw Communications, in a press release. "As entertainment continues to trend toward larger than life screens, we’re able to stay ahead of the curve in being able to deliver world-class High Definition quality to our customers."
(No word though on how many – or few – Shaw…
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TORONTO – Now that the largest Canadian broadcast and specialty networks are owned by the big four distributors, look for them to start to push harder at monetizing their online presences – while trying not to negatively impact their traditional TV advertising revenue and access provider programming fees – which totalled about $6.23 billion in 2010, says a new report from Convergence Consulting.
As it currently stands, online does little to improve broadcast and specialty networks’ bottom line, says the report, the latest instalment of the company’s ongoing “Battle for the North American Couch Potato” series. Most private Canadian broadcasters…
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GATINEAU – The CRTC must give broadcasters the flexibility to compete against over the top (OTT) competitors such as Netflix, Google and Hulu, Shaw Media told the CRTC during the third day of the group-based licence renewal hearing.
“The threat today from over-the-top television is alarming,” said Paul Robertson, group VP of broadcasting and president of Shaw Media. “It stems from major structural shifts in technology and rights exploitation that are permanently reshaping the global broadcast landscape.”
Emerging OTT services have maintained that they aren’t competitive with existing broadcasters, but Shaw says nothing could be further from the truth….
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GATINEAU – Rogers Media’s proposed Canadian program expenditures and programs of national interest spending drew the ire of the CRTC during the second day of hearings into the group-based licence renewals.
“When I listened to what you both said on CPE and PNI, you are really asking for a policy change. That’s as simple as that. It’s like a review and vary application, saying we like what you did but we want you to change it so it fits better to ,” said CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein. “I don’t understand why you feel we should change the basic…
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GATINEAU – Corus Entertainment must be included in the group-based licensing regime so as to better compete with its fellow broadcasters, the company said during its licence renewal hearing on Tuesday.
John Cassaday, president and CEO of Corus, explained that despite the fact it only owns a couple of small local broadcasters (CHEX Peterborough and CKWS Kingston) the group approache enables the primarily pay and specialty company to more flexibly spend money where needed.
“What this group-based licensing approach would allow us to do is to allocate our programming to those areas that have either the greatest strategic need or the…
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