CALGARY – Fourth quarter net income of $66.4 million was way ahead (130%) of the fourth quarter of 2004 for Shaw Communications.
Driving that big increase was a $31 million pre-tax gain on the settlement of a forward sale contract related to an investment with Motorola which contributed $21.7 million to net income. Even without that investment boost, net income in the fourth quarter, ended August 31st, rose 54%.
Annual net income was $160.6 million, up from $90.9 million last year.
Total service revenue of $563 million for the quarter and $2.2 billion for the year grew 5.9% and…
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IT’S NOT OFTEN THAT a family-owned cable company will bring in an outsider to run it. Especially a telco guy.
But, when that cable operation is in the middle of turning into a telephone company, too, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all. Until June of this year, John Piercy was working as a consultant to Hamilton’s Mountain Cablevision, working out the kinks in its telephony offering, leading up to this past summer’s launch.
That’s when Owen Boris (Mountain’s founder) and his son Les asked Piercy (right) to come aboard full time as president. Les is…
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TORONTO – Asian Television Networks has acquired the exclusive Canadian rights to the Videocon Cup, a twelve game cricket series with India vs. South Africa and India vs. Sri Lanka beginning today and running through to the end of November 2005.
ATN also announced the launch of ATN-ZEE Cinema, a popular Indian movie channel, ATN-ZEE Gujarati, a regional Language channel, ATN-Aastha, a Spiritual, devotional and faith based channel with yoga, fitness, aromatherapy and live telecasts of major festivals of India, and ATN Bangla, the longest running independent satellite channel from Bangladesh.
All three launched October 19th on Rogers Cable.
ATN…
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TORONTO – G4techTV Canada announced today that digital cable and satellite subscribers of Rogers, Cogeco, Shaw, Videotron, Star Choice, Bell ExpressVu and Sasktel will get a free preview of the channel through November – and a chance to win a $5,000 digital makeover.
Viewers can win by spotting the G4techTV contest icon. Every time the icon is spotted, viewers can enter online (www.g4techtv.ca) by naming the show where they saw the icon. At the end of November, G4techTV will pick one lucky winner to win a $5,000 digital makeover for the hottest tech and gaming gadgets. Continue Reading
IT AIN’T EASY BEING an independent broadcaster in the unlimited channel universe.
There are so many channels (traditional and otherwise) which serve the same niches of Stornoway’s three channels – news and current affairs service ichannel; dance station bpm:tv; and The Pet Network – that injecting them into the collective conscious psyche of viewers is difficult.
It means a lot of grassroots marketing work. A lot of pavement-pounding, because the budget to be able to afford a mass-marketing campaign just isn’t there.
Then there are the rumors of the company’s imminent sale, or demise, to deal with. By the…
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CALGARY – At a press conference later today, Shaw Communications will officially launch Shaw Digital Phone in Victoria, B.C.
The service, already available in Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg, offers unlimited North American calling and all the popular home phone features for a flat rate of $55 per month for Shaw customers when they bundle the service with any other Shaw service, such as cable TV, digital TV, or high-speed Internet.
"Customers across Western Canada have embraced this new choice for home phone service and we’re extremely excited to bring the service to B.C. and the provincial capital," said Jim…
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OTTAWA – The cable industry saw solid signs of an end to the erosion of its traditional customer base in 2004.
The number of cable television subscribers 7.6 million at the end of August 2004, up 0.4% from a year earlier. “This modest increase followed four consecutive years of decline during which the industry lost a total of 442,000 multi-channel video services customers," says a report on the industry issued today by Statistics Canada.
Despite the turnaround, the overall market share of cable operators continued to decline last year as the two DTH companies continued to sign up new customers,…
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CALGARY – Vancouver Canucks hockey games will be offered on pay per view again this season, Shaw Cable announced this morning.
This marks the fourth year the Canucks will be available to Shaw Digital customers – in British Columbia only, due to NHL regional restrictions – with 17 broadcast games. The Canucks pay per view season kicks off October 16, 2005 against the Dallas Stars.
The 17 game package is available for $139.95 for residential customers. Individual games can also be ordered for $10.95 each. Each PPV game will feature pre- and post-game shows
www.shaw.ca
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MONTREAL – Toronto will host the first-ever Children, Youth & Media Conference on November 10th.
Organized by the Alliance for Children and Television (ACT), the conference is the only one of its kind to bring together Canada’s creators, producers and broadcasters of youth programming. Modeled after Média-Jeunes, a highly coveted gathering the ACT has held in Montreal on four occasions, this new event is devoted to exchange, training and professional development.
Over 200 attendees, including a number of well-known specialists, will explore programming trends and share their views on the needs and interests of young people through workshops, discussions…
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CALGARY – Shaw Cablesystems today announced the selection of BBDO Canada as its new advertising agency of record.
The announcement comes after a thorough search and credentials review that involved several leading agencies across Canada. Terms of the contract (it’s a pretty good sized one, though) were not announced.
"There is a great fit between BBDO’s core values and Shaw’s Vision and Values, which we believe is the right foundation for an excellent working relationship," said Peter Bissonnette, president of Shaw Communications, in a release. "Beyond our shared values, their track record of accomplishments, understanding of our category, and…
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