HAMILTON MEDIA OUTLETS aired a city-wide telethon yesterday to raise money for two hospitals in Haiti which have long-standing working relationships with Hamilton’s St. Joseph’s Health System.
According to the most up-to-date reports, Hopital Universitaire la Paix – a 150 bed hospital – is standing, but is overwhelmed with patients and is suffering a critical lack of supplies. Approximately 50% of University Hospital – a 750 bed hospital in downtown Port-Au-Prince – has been destroyed and it too is experiencing the same demands from those affected by the earthquake.
Channel Zero’s CHCH, The Hamilton Spectator, Corus-owned 900 CHML and cable community…
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TORONTO – Cogeco Cable’s Chris Macfarlane, Telonix’s Eric Goulden and Jason Lowe of Clearcable are the three newest additions to the board of directors of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Ontario chapter.
They were the top three candidates after chapter members’ recent vote.
They join TVC Canada’s Bill McMillan, Rogers Cable’s James Myles, and Cogeco’s Daniel Sacolle on the board of directors and will assume their roles starting February 1,2010.
Boris Eventov (Cogeco), Rob McCann (Clearcable) and Bruce Marshall (Mountain Cablevision/Shaw) will be retiring from the board, after having served their term.
www.scte-ontario.com
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TORONTO – The primary headline will be the $40 million raised by Canada’s broadcasters via a pair of telethons on Friday (one in Toronto and another in French in Montreal), but there are a lot of other stories out there of companies from our industry rallying their employees or their customers to the cause.
Canada For Haiti, Friday’s one-hour, commercial-free special produced collaboratively between CBC Television, CTV and Global Television and also aired on Citytv, has raised more than $13.5 million to date for relief efforts in Haiti, it was confirmed today. (Citytv also aired its own “Help for Haiti”…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications will purchase for cancellation 1.6 million of its outstanding Class B non-voting participating shares for an aggregate purchase price of $30.5 million.
The move represents approximately 0.39% of the Class B shares outstanding as at December 31, 2009. The transaction is expected to settle on January 21, 2010.
The private purchase was made under an issuer bid exemption order issued by the Ontario Securities Commission.
www.shaw.ca
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CALGARY – Despite hinting at its future wireless service, Shaw was short on details around when and how it may eventually introduce a mobile offering.
“During fiscal 2010 we also plan to take initial steps to commence wireless activities, with build out planned over the next several years", said CEO and vice chair Jim Shaw, in a press release Thursday morning that detailed the company’s first quarter results.
However, when asked about wireless during a conference call with media and industry analysts on Thursday afternoon, Shaw would only confirm that the company is focused on “fundamental issues” around the project…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications will repurchase for cancellation 1.5M of its outstanding Class B non-voting participating shares for an aggregate purchase price of just over $30 million.
The move represents approximately 0.36% of the Class B shares outstanding as at November 30, 2009. The transaction is expected to settle on December 21, 2009.
www.shaw.ca
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CALGARY – For hometown hockey fans who can’t wait for the Olympics, Shaw will air the Mac’s AAA Midget Hockey Tournament finals on New Year’s Day.
The tournament, now in its 32nd year, will feature forty teams with players aged 15-17 from across North America, playing at arenas in Calgary. The men’s and women’s finals will be shown on Shaw and Shaw Direct as part of a two-year broadcast rights agreement.
"The Mac’s AAA Midget Hockey Tournament is a major event for the Calgary hockey community, drawing up to a hundred thousand spectators every year," said Shaw president Peter Bissonnette, in the…
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CALGARY and WINNPEG – Both Shaw and MTS have turned on their fire log channels in time for the holiday season.
Shaw’s holiday programming also includes the Shaw Christmas Tree, a 50-foot Colorado spruce decorated with more than 6,000 multi-coloured light bulbs and ornaments.
MTS has debuted a “triple blaze” fireplace this year, a virtual fireplace available on MTS TV, wireless, and Internet services.
www.shaw.cawww.mtsallstream.com
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GATINEAU – The Shaw Communications legal team and the Commission share a difference of opinion.
Qu’elle surprise, you’re thinking.
However, the one that arose Wednesday as Shaw faced the Commission during 2009-614 (the hearing forced by an Order-In-Council that will inform a report to the Heritage Ministry on establishing a value for signal regime for local broadcasters) was a different conflict than some of the others we’ve followed between Shaw and the Regulator.
In its opener on Wednesday afternoon, Shaw’s SVP regulatory, Jean Brazeau, insisted that the CRTC can not issue a policy ruling on the hearing held last month on setting…
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QUIETLY POSTED TUESDAY on the CRTC’s web site were the 2009 aggregate financial data of the large Canadian broadcasters and BDUs. And, as we all knew, the BDUs are doing pretty well. The broadcasters, not so much.
CTV EVP Paul Sparkes tried to quickly introduce some of the data during its Q&A session Tuesday during the ongoing hearing into a broadcaster compensation regime because of the dramatically different bottom line numbers for his company compared to the big carriers. However, he was interrupted by Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein before he could spit out the admittedly huge profit before…
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