CALGARY – “Solid” subscriber growth, including a “record” quarterly gain in digital subs, helped Shaw recognize a 10% jump in consolidated service revenue for its second quarter, compared to the same period last year.
Consolidated service revenue for the second quarter ended February 28, 2009 was $839 million, while service operating income of $381 million before amortization was a 9% improvement over the same time last year.
The company also reported funds flow from operations increased to $335 million compared to $304 million in the same year-over-year period. Free cash flow for the quarter was $138 million, flat compared…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications last week upped the responsibilities for five of its key executives.
Brad Shaw has been appointed senior vice president, operations for Shaw Communications, with responsibility for Shaw Cable, Star Choice, Shaw Broadcast Services and Shaw Tracking.
Jean Brazeau is now senior vice president, regulatory affairs, with responsibility for all regulatory matters related to Shaw Communications.
Jay Mehr is the new group vice president, operations, with responsibility for the overall leadership for Shaw’s Cable operations, including customer care, sales, technical operations and community program delivery.
Dennis Steiger is now group vice president, engineering, with accountability for…
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CALGARY – Shaw has added ‘Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) On Demand’ to its video-on-demand lineup.
The service features live events, single fights, classic programming, behind the scenes specials and athlete profiles.
"The UFC is one of the fastest growing sports organizations in the world. We are pleased to offer UFC On Demand to Shaw’s dedicated fight fans," said Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications, in the press release. "With new content each month plus all current live events, UFC On Demand brings every must-see fight right into our customers’ living rooms."
www.shaw.ca www.ufc.com
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TORONTO – Revenue from television subscriptions in Canada will grow by 8% in 2009, forecasts Toronto’s Convergence Consulting Group.
“TV access revenue”, says a key portion of one of its 2009 editions of “The Battle for the North American Couch Potato” was $7.2 billion in 2008 (from cable companies, satellite and telco TV providers), most of which comes from Canadian MSOs.
“Cable has added basic TV subs every year since 2004, and the report forecasts the segment will effectively maintain its dominant TV subscriber market share – from 73% of TV subscribers at the end of 2008 to 71%…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications announced plans to sell up to $600 million worth of senior unsecured notes due in 2014, pricing the bond offering at 6.50%.
The company said in a statement that the net proceeds of the offering will be used for its debt repayment or redemption, for working capital and “for general corporate purposes”.
Closing is scheduled for March 27, 2009. The notes are available in Canada and the United States, through an underwriting syndicate led by TD Securities Inc.
www.shaw.ca
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CALGARY – Characterizing the results as "solid", Shaw Communications today announced second quarter fiscal 2009 subscriber results that saw digital television subscriber growth rise by more than double as compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2008.
Basic cable subscribers increased 4,273 to 2,273,904 in the quartere ended February 28, digital and Internet customers grew by 106,489 to 1,076,373 and 26,130 to 1,626,334, respectively, and digital phone lines were up 50,848 to 719,376. Star Choice DTH customers increased 3,657 to 896,633.
Internet and phone sub growth was slower, however. The company’s growth rate on Internet subs was 46% slower…
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MORE AND MORE, we’re beginning to realize that to provide the quickest, most robust broadband experience, fibre optics must penetrate far more deeply than most CFOs and others in charge of capex at telecom and cable companies are hoping.
Fibre to the neighbourhood, or to the node? That works great now and will continue to be satisfactory for the near and mid-term future. But not so long from now, consumers will be demanding more – far more – especially when they begin to access ever more bandwidth-hungry services like high definition TV over the web.
North American cable and…
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TORONTO – Moody’s Investors Service has upgraded Shaw Communications’ senior unsecured debt ratings to Baa3 from Ba1, after concluding a ratings review that began at the end of January.
Shaw’s ratings outlook has also been repositioned to “stable”. With the company’s debt now rated at an investment grade level, the former speculative grade liquidity rating has been withdrawn, as have the company’s probability of default rating and loss given default assessments for individual debt instruments, the press release detailed.
The rating action anticipates that Shaw “will exhibit key attributes of an investment grade company”, including a strong and relatively stable…
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TORONTO – The new Canada Media Fund (CMF) puts private companies in charge of a "key Canadian cultural fund", worries The Documentary Organization of Canada/l’association des Documentaristes du Canada (DOC).
DOC said in a statement that cable companies have argued in the past that the special levies they collect from Canadians are ‘theirs’, and that they should have the ability to influence the content of programs produced and to spend the money on their own in-house productions. This would effectively give them “full control” over content, copyright and distribution of Canadian programming paid for by public funds.
The…
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OTTAWA – CNN International has been added to the list of eligible satellite services for distribution in Canada.
The CRTC received a request from Shaw Communications in May 2008 to make the U.S.-based news service available on a digital basis, and the Commission agreed on Tuesday.
Shaw describes the service as a 24 hour-per-day, professionally produced, satellite-delivered, advertiser-supported video programming service in the English language predominantly consisting of news, information and special features. Also, according to Shaw, CNNI focuses on international news, current affairs and business programming reported by staff of various international backgrounds.
www.crtc.gc.ca www.shaw.ca…
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