OTTAWA – The new Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s fight against the sexual exploitation of children received significant support from the Government of Canada this week with an investment of $2 million in new funding for the Centre over the next two years.
"This announcement is another concrete action that our government is taking to protect children from online adult sexual predators, and to prevent them from being sexually abused,” said the Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, in a press release.
“This funding follows an investment we provided the RCMP to combat child sexual exploitation, as well…
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CALGARY – The Shaw family purchased a million shares of their own company this week, which would have cost them about $19.5 million.
A month ago, it would have cost them about $25 million, but the stock price – along with many on the TSX, has drifted downwards in the past 30 days. Rogers Communications has dropped from $45 to $38 over the same time frame and Cogeco Cable has tumbled from $48 to the $39 range as well.
The Shaw family now holds 47,669,356 Class A and Class B shares of their company.
www.shaw.ca
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HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of new dollars could pour into the Canadian television system under a new fee-for-carriage plan proposed by Canada’s two main private broadcast networks.
Rivals CTVglobemedia and Canwest made a little history Friday by filing a joint submission to the CRTC’s review of its policies governing broadcast distribution undertakings (cable and satellite companies) and specialty services. Those hearings are set to begin April 7th.
Saying conventional television – thanks to the ever-increasing rate of audience fragmentation driven by specialty services and new media outlets – is in “crisis”, the broadcasters want the Commission to add a subscriber…
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TORONTO – Canada’s High Fidelity HDTV Inc. has signed on London-based TVF International as its international distribution partner for programming produced by the broadcaster’s production entity, High Fidelity HDTV Media Inc.
The agreement was unveiled Tuesday at Real Screen in Washington.
Along with about 70 hours of already produced programming, TVF will have the first option for distribution of High Fidelity’s yearly production slate, and will play a role in sourcing international co-production financing.
HD productions include Secrets of the Exhibit (7 x 60), about the secrets behind orderly, perfectly labeled museum displays; Oasis Earth (1 x 60), which…
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CALGARY – The familiar Shaw Communications logo is now emblazoned on a number of fast-moving Canadians and their specialized vehicles.
This week the company announced its sponsorship of the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton teams with a $225,000 cash donation along with a commitment to employ BSC athletes at Shaw.
"Shaw is proud to sponsor the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton teams," said Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw, in a release. "We are pleased to be supporting these athletes and look forward to partnering with them on their exciting journey to excellence."
Through its ‘Hire an Athlete’ program, Shaw will provide flexible work…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications bucked the trend among its cable brethren somewhat by growing its number of digital subscribers.
Shaw added almost 40,000 digital cable customers in the first quarter of fiscal 2008, ended November 30, 2007, a 56% increase over last year’s Q1. As reported this week by Cartt.ca, both Rogers Cable and Cogeco Cable saw their digital growth slow over the same or similar time frame.
However, at just 36% digital penetration as compared to basic subs, Shaw has a longer way to go in terms of digital growth when compared to Rogers (59% penetration) and Cogeco…
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TORONTO – After securing carriage on Shaw Cable, Star Choice and Cogeco Cable, Teletoon Retro, a digital channel launched less than two months ago, already has over 4 million subscribers.
That’s within anvil-tossing distance of some analog stations, like BNN, which has just over five million, for example.
The rapid build-up can likely be traced to the channel’s decision, as we reported here, to request digital basic carriage in exchange for very low wholesale rates (free for a year, six cents the following year and five cents for the next three years). So for the BDUs that carry…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has told the CRTC it will implement high definition simultaneous substitution as the Commission has previously told it to.
A December 7th letter to the Commission says the HD sim-subbing Shaw Cable and Star Choice weren’t doing, will begin being done by December 31st. Two weeks prior to that letter the CRTC set a January 15th, 2008 hearing date for Shaw to appear and explain its non-compliance.
After a complaint filed by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters in June that said neither Shaw Cablesystems nor its sister satellite company Star Choice were performing their…
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OTTAWA – Shaw Communications is again in hot regulatory water over the sponsorship messages that have appeared on its cable community channels out west.
Last week, the CRTC issued a letter decision to the company saying some of the ads appearing on Shaw TV aren’t allowed under the regulations and applied new reporting requirements to the big cableco, since this is the second such violation.
When we reported on this in 2006, we noted that the Broadcast Distribution Regulations , say cable companies are not allowed to air traditional ad spots and there are limitations on the types…
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IN 2003, WHEN THE HOUSE of Commons Heritage Committee issued the “Our Cultural Sovereignty” report (better known as the Lincoln Report) it recommended that “the existing foreign ownership limits for broadcasting and telecommunications be maintained a current levels.”
At that time, the then Canadian Alliance Party, whose leader was Stephen Harper, put out the following dissenting opinion: “The Canadian Alliance disagrees with (this recommendation). The Canadian Alliance supports relaxing foreign ownership rules on Canadian industry, including telecommunications and broadcast distribution. We suggest conducting an immediate review to determine whether to reduce or completely remove these rules.” Those very same…
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