Search Results for: shaw

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw offering $1.25B in senior notes

CALGARY – Shaw Communications has announced a senior note offering of $1.25 billion which it says will be used to repay debt, and could be used for “potential acquisitions”. The senior unsecured notes will be due in 2019, and will be made available in Canada and the U.S. under Shaw’s previously filed shelf prospectus, pursuant to an agency agreement with TD Securities Inc. acting as lead agent. Closing is scheduled to occur on October 1, 2009 and, based on the closing purchase price, the effective yield of the notes if held to maturity, is 5.692%. Moody’s Investors Service assigned a Baa3 rating… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Will there really be two fee-for-carriage hearings?

GATINEAU – Thanks to the recent edict from the federal government telling the CRTC it must hold a public hearing into the fee for carriage issue (even though the Regulator has long had a public process in the works), the Commission is now mulling what it’s going to do with two hearings on the exact same issue now scheduled a month apart. As readers will have followed, the CRTC scheduled a fall hearing (BNC 2009-411) earlier this year to consider group licensing for broadcasters and fee for carriage for local conventional TV stations. While the hearing was amended from… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Fun with TV numbers as Commission releases BDUs’ and broadcasters’ aggregate financial data

THE BIG BROADCASTERS and BDUs fought this, but by September 14th, those companies had to file their aggregate financial data from their 2008 fiscal years with the Commission. On the weekend, the CRTC posted the figures on its web site and since the industry it currently roiling over the continuing fee-for-carriage debate, we looked at the numbers largely through that prism. After spending several hours examining a lot of the data, I can tell you the most lucrative place to work is Bell TV – which paid its 1,398 employees an average salary of $90,136 – or CTV, whose average… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw to redeem senior notes

CALGARY – Shaw has announced that it will redeem all of its outstanding U.S.$440 million 8.25% senior notes that are due April 11, 2010. The redemption price will be payable in cash, and the redemption date will be October 13, 2009. www.shaw.ca Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Corus Custom Networks rolls with DSI

SASKATOON – Corus Custom Networks has inked a service agreement with Display Systems International (DSI) to provide data for its television scrolling guides. Corus Custom Networks, a Corus Entertainment company, provides scrolling guide television services to all of Shaw Cable’s locations. DSI has been operating since 1983 and its current line of products, which include LineUp and the Elite series of character generators, are installed in various cable operations across North America. www.displaysystemsintl.comwww.corusent.com Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

UPDATE: Shaw overbuilding Delta B.C.

DELTA, B.C. – Shaw Communications trucks have rolled into Delta, B.C. as Shaw Communications has launched an overbuild program in the region. Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told Cartt.ca Monday afternoon that it began expanding its network about three weeks ago after receiving approval from the CRTC to grow its cable territory into Delta, Ladner and the surrounding areas southeast of Vancouver. “We’ve got our cable up one side of the street and theirs on the other,” Bissonnette said when asked about the existing company already there, Bragg Communications-owned Delta Cable. “We’ve been receiving calls from people there saying they would like to… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw overbuilding Delta B.C.

DELTA, B.C. – Shaw Communications trucks have rolled into Delta, B.C. as Shaw Communications has launched an overbuild program in the Delta, B.C. region. Shaw president Peter Bissonnette told Cartt.ca Monday afternoon that it began expanding its network about three weeks ago after receiving approval from the CRTC to grow its cable territory. “We’ve got our cable up one side of the street and theirs on the other,” Bissonnette said when asked about the existing company already there, Bragg Communications-owned Delta Cable. “We’ve been receiving calls from people there saying they would like to get Shaw,” said Bissonnette. More to come. Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

CCSA 2009: CableLabs’ Lammers on how the other half competes

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE, Ont. – While the future of high speed data for cable operators is DOCSIS 3.0 and whatever comes after that, it may not yet be necessary to dive into that cost and upgrade for most CCSA members. Thanks to an ever-increasing array of new bandwidth-hungry applications (to say nothing of the oldest, biggest, app, analog television), all network operators are finding network management a challenge. So this morning, Chris Lammers, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Cable Television Laboratories, the cable industry’s R&D consortium, told delegates at Connect 2009, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual conference, a bit about… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Broadcasters, BDUs united on government’s involvement on fee-for-carriage

IN A VIRTUALLY unprecedented display of unity, Canada’s biggest broadcasters and BDUs unanimously agreed that the federal government’s decision to step in on the fee-for-carriage issue was a good one. In a joint statement, CTV, Global and CBC all said that they welcomed the government’s “commitment to consumers” and “new negotiation for value regime”. "We are in agreement that consumer interests should be front and center when it comes to implementing a new negotiation for value model for local television across the country," said Charlotte Bell, Global’s SVP of regulatory and government affairs, in the statement. "Going forward, we welcome a clear… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

UPDATE: Y2K agreement means $300-million Mountain Cable purchase by Shaw can’t happen, says Rogers

TORONTO – Canada’s two largest cable companies have very different opinions of a nine-year old agreement that had its genesis during a March 2000 dinner in Toronto between Ted Rogers and Jim Shaw – and the dispute has led the country’s two largest cable companies to court. Rogers Communications is asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justice for an injunction blocking the $300-million sale of Hamilton’s Mountain Cablevision because Shaw signed a letter that became effective in March of 2001 which says the Calgary-based MSO wouldn’t mess in Rogers’ territory and the big red machine would stay out of the… Continue Reading