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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WHILE MASSIVE SPENDING cuts at one bankrupt broadcaster led it back into the black in 2010, another that was home to the Olympics saw the Games both boost – and drag down – results.
According to the aggregate financial data submitted to the CRTC by all English and French language OTA broadcasters and posted to the Commission web site recently, all lost money, save two.
• Those two are Quebecor Media’s TVA (which recorded a PBIT of $49 million in the 2010 broadcast year (ended August 31, 2010) and the former Canwest Global stations (now part of Shaw Media) which…
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TORONTO – Despite assertions to the contrary, Shaw may not roll out its new wireless service this year. As the Calgary-based company prepares for its annual general meeting on Thursday, at least one industry analyst is predicting that a “widespread wireless launch in 2011 seems unlikely”.
“Building a wireless asset may be more challenging and take longer than some may think”, wrote Dvai Ghose, the managing director and head of Canadian research for Canaccord Genuity, in a note to investors on Monday. “Shaw has publicly stated that it aims to launch wireless in 2011. However, it had also planned to…
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TORONTO – HGTV Canada is kicking off 2011 with a multi-platform image campaign celebrating winter and a new season of programming.
Targeting Adults 25-54, the national campaign, with emphasis in Ontario, features three winter scenes emulating a playful and warm feeling while reflecting the channel’s home improvement, design and real estate themes on over 500 billboards in Toronto, Kitchener, London and Ottawa for six weeks. Featuring either a house made of ice and snow, a handy snowman donning a hard-hat and tool belt, or HGTV’s ‘snowfa’, all pieces feature the tagline: ‘It’s A Big Winter On HGTV. Something New Every…
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WINNIPEG – Winnipeg has become the fifth Global Television market to broadcast in high definition with the launch of a new digital, over-the-air transmitter.
The Global Winnipeg HD signal is available now on Shaw Cable’s channel 211; on MTS Digital TV on channel 455; and over the air on channel 40, the company announced. In addition to the new HD signal, Global Winnipeg’s current analog over-the-air signal will continue to be available to viewers in both an analog and a digital format until the summer of 2011, to coincide with the phasing-out of over-the-air analog television signals in major markets across Canada.
“The move to HD…
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