CALGARY – Shaw Communications credited its BlueSky TV for an increase in cable TV subscribers for the first time since 2010.
After years of TV customer losses, Shaw said Wednesday that it added nearly 13,000 cable TV subscribers in the three months ended May 31, compared to a loss of about 27,000 subs in Q3 2016, after launching BlueSky TV across its entire cable video footprint earlier this year.
Revenue from continuing operations for the quarter of $1.31 billion increased by 2.8% over the same period last year, while operating income before restructuring costs and amortization for the quarter dipped to $550…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications and Vancouver’s Mobi by Shaw Go bike share system are setting the wheels in motion this Canada Day long weekend to help residents give back to the community.
Shaw pledged to donate $1 to Ronald McDonald House British Columbia and Yukon for every ride Vancouver residents and visitors take on Mobi by Shaw Go from Friday, June 30 to Monday, July 3. The initiative is part of Shaw's Canada 150 birthday wishes campaign to recognize the people and organizations who are doing exceptional work to improve the lives of children and youth.
"Whether you're biking to work,…
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MONTREAL and CALGARY – Videotron is continuing to shed its wireless spectrum outside of Quebec, announcing early Tuesday that Shaw Communications has bought seven licences for $430 million.
The sale includes three 700 MHz licences covering southern Ontario and the entirety of Alberta and British Columbia, and four 2500 MHz licences covering Toronto, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver.
The transaction is subject to required approvals from regulatory authorities, including the Competition Bureau and Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada. It has already received all required internal approvals at Shaw and Videotron parent company Quebecor.
Videotron said that the proceeds of the sale will…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has sold off its Denver-based subsidiary ViaWest Inc. for approximately C$2.3 billion (US$1.675 billion) to GI Partners portfolio company Peak 10 Holding Corporation.
The deal is subject to customary conditions, including U.S. regulatory approval, and is expected to close by the end of the company’s fiscal 2017 year-end in August. It is not subject to a financing condition.
ViaWest provides hybrid IT solutions, including colocation, cloud computing and security and compliance for North American enterprises. Shaw, which bought ViaWest in 2014 for US$1.2 billion, said that it expects to realize net cash proceeds of approximately C$900…
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MISSISSAUGA and DALLAS – Shaw said Friday that it is selling its Shaw Tracking division to Dallas-based Omnitracs. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Shaw Tracking has been the exclusive Canadian distributor of Omnitracs fleet management solutions for over 25 years, offering services such as GPS vehicle tracking products, fleet management software, and professional services for additional support. Shaw Tracking will be integrated into the Omnitracs solution portfolio, further expanding that company’s customer base and reach into Canada.
“By going to a leader in the transportation and logistics industry, the operations of Shaw Tracking are well-positioned for future…
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Momentum building as company concentrates on connectivity
CALGARY – If you say “Yo, Adrian” to Shaw’s new Blue Sky TV voice-activated remote, every Rocky movie the system can find will be displayed on your TV – along with some suggestions of other titles you might like, alongside their Rotten Tomato scores.
It’s hard not to be impressed with such a neat trick, and it’s one which any Shaw Blue Sky TV customer can do in their homes, right now, thanks to the years and millions of hours of work done by thousands of Comcast Corp. developers. To this eye (or ear),…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications announced today that it will close its community cable TV stations in Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver and redirect $10 million annually that would normally fund those stations to Corus Entertainment’s Global News.
Beginning September 1, 2017, Global News will use these new resources to sustain and expand its local journalistm.
The CRTC gave vertically integrated companies in large metropolitan centres the option to do this when it re-wrote the rules on funding local programming in 2016. Rogers Communications already has announced it will take advantage of the new regs,…
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CALGARY – New Freedom Mobile subscribers combined with slowing TV, Internet and landline customer losses helped to power Shaw Communications to its best quarterly subscriber performance in five years, the company said Wednesday.
For the three month period ended February 28, 2017, consolidated revenue from continuing operations of $1.30 billion increased by 13.3% from $1.15 billion year-over-year, while operating income before restructuring costs and amortization for the quarter of $540 million improved 7.6% over the comparable period. Excluding the results of the Wireless division, acquired on March 1, 2016, revenue for the quarter from the combined Consumer, Business Network Services…
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Shaw telling customers it's time to talk to your television
CALGARY – Shaw Communications’ next generation of television, BlueSky TV, is now available across Western Canada, the company announced Wednesday morning.
Powered by Comcast's next generation X1 platform, BlueSky TV's interface allows customers to access live programming, DVR recordings, on-demand shows and streaming services all in one place. The voice-activated remote lets customers find content by title, genre, actor name or even by famous movie quote. New content can be discovered by saying "recommendations" or asking the remote "what's trending" to see what content is popular with other BlueSky TV users…
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SAN FRANCISCO and CALGARY – Shaw Communications has been hit by a lawsuit that seeks to halt the rollout of its new voice-controlled platform BlueSky TV.
The Kudelski Group, with headquarters in Switzerland and Phoenix, AZ, says it holds over 5,300 issued and pending patents worldwide. Its OpenTV, Inc. and Nagravision S.A. subsidiaries have filed a patent infringement suit in the Federal Court of Canada, alleging that Shaw’s system infringes six of its Canadian patents.
The asserted patents “relate to a wide variety of features in Shaw’s system, including its PayTV purchasing, distribution, viewership monitoring, and interactive television systems”, the company said…
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