Search Results for: shaw

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw looks to staff up for wireless launch

TORONTO – As the company gears up to launch its wireless service next year, Shaw has put out the call for new employees. Shaw will host a “networking event” in downtown Toronto this Thursday evening, with qualified candidates invited back the following day for a more formal interview.  Details and the location of the event will be revealed to the first 300 guests who RSVP here. While short on specifics, Shaw’s announcement said that it’s looking to fill “a wide range of positions” within its IT and Engineering teams. www.shaw.ca Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

ANALYSIS: Telus to Bell: Content exclusives on mobile and broadband? Notsofast

PART OF THE RATIONALE behind Bell Canada’s purchase of CTV is that the mobile and broadband spaces are unregulated – and that content exclusives will be part of the game when attracting and retaining subscribers who want to see their video content on their iPads, BlackBerrys or PCs, as well as their TVs. Bell CEO George Cope told us as much when we asked him about it during the press conference announcing the deal last week. However, to paraphrase what Telus has been saying for a while now: “Not so fast, consolidators.” The Bell/CTV deal was excellent timing for the… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Shaw drafts Sportsnet One

TORONTO and CALGARY – Add Shaw to the short list of distributors who have added Rogers Sportsnet One to their programming rosters. Starting Wednesday, Shaw said that “the vast majority” of its customers will receive Sportsnet One as part of their existing television package.  The channel will be available to all Shaw digital TV customers in a free preview until October 31, and then be added to the Shaw Digital TV, HD Plus, and HD Sports packages. Shaw Direct customers will have Sportsnet One included in the English and French Essentials package, and in the HD Sports packages. "As customer advocates, we’ve… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

SHAW/CANWEST: Industry urges caution, more tangible benefits, as CRTC prepares to examine purchase

CALGARY – When the CRTC dives into the proposed purchase of Canwest Global’s TV assets by Shaw Communications next week, many industry stakeholders are asking for asking for safeguards and urging the Commission to be prudent. (Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien will be in Calgary next week covering the hearing. For live updates, follow him on Twitter via @gregobr and surf back to Cartt.ca regularly.) The $2 billion deal, which would make Shaw the largest vertically integrated media company in Canada, for now, appears to have the cautious support of many, as long as certain conditions – often described as “competitive safeguards” – are attached. Shaw’s primary… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

COMMENTARY: Dear commissioners, There’s nothing wrong with changing your minds on 9.1.h

“One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” – Peter Drucker By Bill Roberts NOW THAT WE HAVE TWO major mergings of BDUs and large national broadcasters underway, plus an inclination to enhance non-Canadian ownership potential, perhaps there is just cause and fair reason to review the recent 9.1.h. decision by the CRTC. This is especially critical for the diverse voices and ownership structures of the smaller and independent broadcasters within the Canadian broadcasting system. In the first instance – and seeing now how fast the landscape morphs – the extent to which the CRTC makes rules to be… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Corus’ Local1 a “thinly disguised weather specialty channel”: Pelmorex

TORONTO – Citing the CRTC’s genre exclusivity policy and a nearly identical programming schedule, Pelmorex Communications says Corus Entertainment’s application for a category 2 specialty channel providing community news, information and weather in Western Canada should be denied. The Corus service is “a thinly disguised weather specialty channel which would duplicate completely the programming service that The Weather Network already provides to Western Canadians,” Pelmorex (owner of TWN and Météomédia) tells the Commission in comments filed on September 7. An appendix to its submission shows that about 90% of Local1’s programming would be “similar, if not the same” as… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

EXCLUSIVE: New research shows 41% of Canadian wireless customers want to switch

CANADIAN WIRELESS CUSTOMERS ARE hungry for a deal.  According to brand new research, they are seeing the big ad campaigns and know they can shop around more than they ever have – and they’ll take their business to the best rate. While all the wireless providers, new or incumbent, talk a great game about providing the best customer service, the highest speeds, the greatest apps and handsets, and the strongest, most reliable network – all lovely marketing bullet points – they only work to a degree. Exclusive research from Toronto’s Solutions Research Group and Cartt.ca shows that when it comes to… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Battle for “beach front” 700 MHz spectrum will be fierce: analyst

TORONTO – Bell and Telus could be the winners when the 700 MHz wireless spectrum hits the auction block, predicts one industry analyst. Responding to Cartt.ca’s report that Industry Minister Clement may accelerate the 700 MHz mobile spectrum auction in Canada, Canaccord Genuity managing director and head of Canadian research, Dvai Ghose, told investors Monday that the two big telcos appear to have an advantage over Rogers because they share spectrum, while Rogers does not have a national spectrum sharing partner. “We also believe that the 700 MHz auction poses a key risk to cash flow and dividend growth for… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Bell/CTV combination looks to be powerful protection in our ever-changing media world

TORONTO – Bell Canada’s announcement this morning that it will spend $1.3 billion for all of CTV looks like a bid to protect and power a lot of its asset engines with a lot of superb oil and fuel. The deal comes with $1.7 billion in debt, and factoring in Bell’s 15% ownership of CTVglobemedia, places a total value of $3.2 billion on CTV. The Globe and Mail newspaper has been carved out, as the Thomson family will take majority ownership of the paper. If approved (and this doesn’t look to ring any Regulatory warning bells) the new company will… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

OBLIGATION TO SERVE: Does the CRTC have the authority to make broadband an essential service?

GATINEAU – Canada’s major cable companies and telcos are squaring off against MTS Allstream and the Public Interest Advocacy Centre over the CRTC’s authority to mandate broadband as an essential service. Comments filed with the CRTC in late August show that Bell Canada, Telus and all of the large cablecos are, not surprisingly, opposed to any Commission intervention on this matter, while PIAC and MTS firmly believe that the CRTC can make broadband essential. The issue has become a central theme in an ongoing proceeding on a broad variety of telecom matters, generally referred to as the obligation to… Continue Reading