Search Results for: shaw

Cable / Telecom News

Telus to sink $650M into Alberta infrastructure

EDMONTON and CALGARY – Telus hopes to give Shaw a run for its money right in its own backyard. The Vancouver-based telco said Wednesday that it will invest $650 million in Alberta this year to extend the reach and speed of its advanced wireline and wireless broadband services – including Telus TV. "This massive commitment to the province is enabling one of the world’s leading wireless networks and the widespread availability of high definition Telus TV”, said president and CEO Darren Entwistle, in the announcement. “This year’s capital investment continues Telus’ longstanding commitment to providing Albertans with access to some of… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Score’s NCAA basketball coverage includes on-demand

TORONTO – Score Media is giving its coverage of the annual NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball tournament the full court press. Running from March 16 to April 5, the U.S.-based championship featuring 65 teams will be available on sports network The Score, with highlights and coverage also available on its website, its mobile app ScoreMobile and its Hardcore Sports Radio channel on Sirius satellite radio.  Select games will also be available via Rogers’ and Shaw’s on demand platforms, and on Sun TV. "For three weeks straight, fans will be hooked on NCAA March Madness and we’ll be right there guiding them… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Attendance up 17% at second SCTE Canadian Summit

TORONTO – This year’s SCTE Canadian Summit boasted significant increases in both attendance (up more than 17%) and vendors (nearly 75%) over last year’s figures. In addition to a diverse program agenda, highlights included the designation of Arris’ Moxi whole home media gateway as the ‘technology most likely to be deployed’ in the inaugural Innovation Showcase; and a first-ever pre-conference ‘Frontliners Night’ that was designed to broaden the industry knowledge of customer-facing personnel. The conference closed with a session on the advantages of implementing ‘green’ technologies. “The substantial growth in attendees and exhibitors indicates a real understanding that today’s technology… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CBC’s Hockey Night headlines national street hockey tourney

LONDON, ON – CBC Hockey Night in Canada’s annual street hockey tournament ‘Play On!’ will take to a street near you starting this May. Open to boys, girls, men and women of all ages and skill levels, the event bills itself as the “nation’s largest annual sports festival”.  Since its inception in 2003, more than 300,000 Canadians have taken part across the country through one of the thirty-five events held to date. This year’s events will be held over the full course of a weekend in St. John’s, NL; Halifax, NS; Moncton, NB; Montreal, QC; Ottawa, ON; Oshawa, ON; Toronto, ON; Hamilton,… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

CanWest Deal: Goldman Sachs appeals court’s decision on Shaw bid

TORONTO – Goldman Sachs is appealing an Ontario court’s decision to allow Shaw Communications to proceed with its takeover of debt-laden CanWest Global. The move means that the bid put forth by Toronto-based investment fund Catalyst Capital, the Asper family and former Rogers execs Rael Merson and John Tory, is still in play. In documents filed in court this week, Goldman Sachs, which financed CanWest’s purchase of specialty channels from Alliance Atlantis back in 2007, appears to be pulling out all the stops to protect its investment, while accusing the new buyers of trying to pick up the… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

SCTE Canadian Summit: Digital quality problems turn cable operators into diagnostic detectives

TORONTO – Although they were hard pressed to admit it, cable operators at Wednesday’s SCTE Canadian Summit acknowledged that customer complaints to their call centres are often the best measurement of the quality of digital service being provided by their networks. It isn’t that these cable ops are lacking network monitoring platforms, or don’t use the resultant diagnostic data to address problems detected by those tools. The bigger issue is that many of the existing measurement and diagnostic tools on the market tell only part of the story, said the speakers who took part in a panel discussion on digital quality issues. Michel Lapointe, senior… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Cable trying to take over broadcasters? Re-reading this passage gave us pause…

GIVEN WHAT HAS now happened since the value-for-signal/fee-for-carriage hearing, an alert reader reminded us of something CRTC commissioner Timothy Denton pondered as the folks from Shaw Communications appeared in front of the Commission panel. Back on November 20th, the now infamous hearing visit by CEO Jim Shaw featured a lot of, well, interesting exchanges. In the official transcript the word “Laughter” appears 23 times, more than on any other day. It also featured the word “woosa”, which we thought was something misheard by the official transcribers – until we looked it up. It means, according to urbandictionary.com, “to calm down and… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Week of March 22 is target for CRTC’s VFS decision

OTTAWA – It’s a much-anticipated decision, but it won’t be released until after March Break. For those on the regulatory side of the industry with kids off school and vacations planned, this is a good thing: Cartt.ca has learned that the target week for the release of the decision on 2009-411, the so-called value-for-signal/fee-for-carriage proceeding, is the week of March 22nd. Click here for a little refresher… Look for the Commission to also have something to say on VOD advertising and local avails, which will then tie into what happens with  this application. – Greg O’Brien Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Leonard Asper quits CanWest

WINNIPEG – The founding family of Canwest Global Communications is officially gone from the executive suite. With his brother and sister resigning from their board positions last month, Canwest Global Communications said this morning Leonard Asper has tendered his resignation as president and CEO and all other director and officer positions with the company his father Izzy founded in the 1970s “in order to pursue other business opportunities and to avoid any concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest,” reads the official press release. The announcement was not a surprise. Asper will continue to provide the company with advice through a… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw’s Haiti donations top $900K

CALGARY – Shaw has helped to deliver more than $900,000 to the on-going relief and recovery efforts of the Red Cross in Haiti. In addition to a corporate donation of $100,000 immediately following January’s devastating earthquake, Shaw doubled its employees’ donations, which in turn were matched by the Canadian government. "We are blown away by the generous contributions of our employees in providing relief to those affected by this disaster," said president Peter Bissonnette, in a statement. "The fact that many of our employees were able to donate $50 or $100 out of their paycheques demonstrates the incredible spirit and generosity of our employees." Shaw… Continue Reading