TORONTO – Rumours in the media that Rogers Communications Inc. is considering merging with Shaw Cable are just that, says RCI president Ted Rogers.
Reporting on the idea is “just plain irresponsible” and “completely theoretical diatribe,” Rogers told analysts today during a company conference call on second quarter earnings.
“We have a lot on our plate,” Rogers said. “We are in as good a shape as we’ve ever been” and the company is focusing on smaller acquisitions and has “no appetite for dilutive transactions.”
“We do not have any active file on Shaw,” Rogers said. “I would be hard-pressed to call…
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FOR SALE: ONE SMALL, independent cable company. Reasonable price. Best offer.
Kaslo Cable is one of a very few remaining independent cable systems. It’s an older system that doesn’t offer high speed Internet nor digital cable to its 300 or so customers – which is part of the reason they want to sell, says co-owner Kul Nijjar. She wants to see a new owner foot the bill for the expensive upgrades needed to go digital.
In lieu of a classified ad explaining the company is for sale, Nijjar (pictured below) chatted with Cartt.ca editor and publisher Greg O’Brien on…
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VANCOUVER – Manual J. Saperstein, founder of Whistler Cable, died on Saturday at Vancouver General Hospital due to complications following heart surgery.
Despite the relative size (about 8,000 subscribers or so) and isolation of his cable company, Saperstein was known across Canada for his technical know-how and willingness to take risks. It’s not well known that Whistler Cable was one of the very first to experiment with voice over Internet protocol telephony in 2005.
According to former Delta Cable president John Thomas, Saperstein was "the ‘engineering consultant to Western Cable interests’, and largely responsible for the establishment, from an…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications’ basic cable subscribers increased by 3,289, digital and Internet customers grew by 20,875 and 27,873, respectively, digital phone lines were up by 51,128, and Star Choice customers increased by 5,337 in the third quarter of fiscal 2007, ended May 31st.
That means the company, as of May 31, has 2,228,898 basic subs, 747,431 digital cable customers, 1,421,899 high speed Internet customers, 877,899 DTH subscribers and 343,753 VOIP customers.
Consolidated service revenue improved 12.1% and 12.7%, for the three and nine month periods over the comparable periods last year to $702.2 million and $2.06 billion, respectively….
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications shareholders approved the company’s proposed two-for-one stock split of its outstanding class A participating shares and class B non-voting participating shares late yesterday.
The split will be effective as of the close of business on July 30, 2007.
Shareholders of record on the 30th will keep their current share certificates and will be provided with additional share certificates representing the class A participating shares and class B non-voting participating shares to which they are entitled as a result of the stock split.
The shares will begin trading on a divided basis on those exchanges, respectively,…
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TORONTO – "The best that can be said about this report is that the Task Force has not recommended to scrap the CTF altogether," said ACTRA national executive director Stephen Waddell in a press release.
That, and it "will change the broadcast distribution regulations to ensure cable companies pay regularly into the fund," he said.
Waddell was talking about the CRTC’s Task Force Report on the Canadian Television Fund, released Friday, as reported by Cartt.ca. The task force, led by Commission vice-chair, broadcasting, Michel Arpin, confirmed the need for the fund’s existence, but called for massive changes in how…
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TORONTO – The Writers Guild of Canada has come out in opposition to the CRTC Task Force on the Canadian Television Fund.
Oddly, while directing pointed criticism at Shaw Communications and Quebecor/Videotron, the WGC release is really about how it believes that broadcasters don’t properly promote or schedule Canadian shows.
The Task Force report calls for the lowering of Canadian talent CAVCO requirements for CTF-funded prime time programming to 8 out of 10 points, from 10 out of 10. To the Writers Guild, that means the report says "in order to garner an audience, programs need non-Canadian talent," reads…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – There will be a new way of doing things when it comes to funding home-grown television, if the recommendations from the Task Force Report on The Canadian Television Fund are followed.
Upon first read, the recommendations released today by task force chair Michel Arpin, vice-chair, broadcasting at the CRTC, largely address the complaints made by the primary funding organizations – Canadian cable and satellite companies – which were led by Shaw Communications and Quebecor Media.
While most of the BDUs have serious reservations about how the CTF has worked and is working, Shaw and Quebecor took action this…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – With the Commission’s report on what ails the Canadian Television Fund due out tomorrow afternoon (the CRTC under the new chair sure is speedy these days!) Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw sent a letter to CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein making it quite clear his feelings on the whole matter.
Shaw, and then Videotron, both suspended their payments to the fund this past winter thanks to a number of long-standing complaints. Mr. Shaw said then and since that because the money was coming from Canadians through their cable and satellite companies they should have better…
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MONTREAL – With bids due this week, perhaps this morning, and rumors swirling all around, here’s where the perplexing BCE bid brouhaha stands right now.
* According to a report in the Globe and Mail, both Onex Corp. and the Caisse de depot et placement due Quebec have decided not to take part in the bid for BCE with the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and U.S. private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts Co., potentially scuttling that bid.
* The Ontario Teachers Pension Plan told Reuters that it will definitely make a bid. Teachers is currently Bell’s…
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