IF YOU WANT AN EARLY look at what the communications infrastructure in Canada is going to look like, it might be worth studying Saskatchewan.
The incumbent telco, SaskTel, has embarked upon an ambitious, aggressive, costly push to modernize its network, driving fibre deep into its communities, taking dead aim at the two large cable companies in the province with its MAX high speed Internet and digital television service.
The reason why this might offer a glimpse into the future is that this is a province where the “normal” economic guidelines the rest of the communications companies in Canada are…
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YEARS BACK, IT WAS EASY to pick on VisionTV. Its programs were old, appearing only on the specialty channel in their second or third (or fourth!) window.
Much of its original “Mosaic” programming looked and sounded terrible – and violated the channel’s Canadian content requirements, it turns out, causing CRTC sanctions. Preachers and traditional religion dominated the channel. However, when current president and CEO Bill Roberts (left) came on board in 2000, he set out to drastically alter VisionTV. More original, interesting, programming – about faith and spirituality and not necessarily organized…
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CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – This morning, Shaw Communications restored the TV signals to Campbell River TV.
Due to a battle over digital cable set top boxes, outlined in several stories on www.cartt.ca throughout this week, Shaw (which owns both the microwave system feeding CRTV its distant U.S. broadcast signals and Cancom, which feeds the cable co-op its U.S. and Canadian specialty services) turned off most of the TV channels of CRTV customers on Wednesday.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia yesterday ordered Shaw Communications to restore the TV signals to Campbell River TV.
For a recap of our coverage,…
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CALGARY – The Shaw family today continued their practice of buying shares of the company JR Shaw founded.
The family announced today it purchased a million class B non-voting shares (judging from the trading price this afternoon of about $24.08, that’s a $24 million spend). CEO Jim Shaw has said in the past the family believes the share price is too low and intends to keep on purchasing shares periodically.
The Shaw family – or entities controlled by them – holds 23,009,624 Shaw Communications class B non-voting shares, or just over 11% of the total outstanding.
The family owns…
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CAMPBELL RIVER and CALGARY – As of Wednesday afternoon, 10,000 Campbell River TV customers were still without most of their TV channels.
As reported by cartt.ca yesterday, Shaw Communications, which owns both networks that CRTV relies on for distant signals, had shut off the microwave system delivering U.S. over-the-air signals and had cut off access to most other Canadian TV signals delivered by Shaw satellite division Cancom.
The problem, says Shaw, is that CRTV is encouraging customers to go to the town of Courtenay – a Shaw Cable region about 45 kms south – purchase digital set top boxes there…
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CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – The Supreme Court of British Columbia has ordered Shaw Communications to restore the TV signals to Campbell River TV.
Due to an acrimonious dispute over digital cable set top boxes, outlined in several stories here on www.cartt.ca throughout this week, Shaw (which owns both the microwave system feeding CRTV its distant U.S. broadcast signals and Cancom, which feeds the cable co-op its U.S. and Canadian specialty services) turned off most of the TV channels of CRTV customers.
CRTV immediately sought a court order and this morning, the court ordered Shaw to “restore to…
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TORONTO – Digital TV customers will be able to call on four different seasonal music channels from Max Trax and Galaxie while they roast chestnuts and stuff stockings.
Beginning December 1, four of the combined 40 audio digital music services from Max Trax and Galaxie will offer listeners uninterrupted, commercial-free music across a range of formats.
Max Trax’s Holiday Hits channel features timeless and contemporary songs ranging from Sting’s I Saw Three Ships and Madonna’s Santa Baby to Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas and The Barenaked Ladies’ Green Christmas.
Max Trax’s Instrumental Holiday channel features seasonal standards…
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CAMPBELL RIVER, B.C. – As general manager Jim Forsyth feared, Shaw Communications revealed the depth of its anger Tuesday afternoon and shut down most of the distant TV signals for Campbell River TV.
“We’ve been disconnected by Shaw from just about everything. The microwave system has been turned off and all of our digital services are off and the vast majority of our satellite channels are off,” Forsyth told www.cartt.ca Tuesday evening.
CRTV is preparing a court injunction to force Shaw to turn its Cancom feeds and microwave distribution back on, said Forsyth, who added Shaw executives have yet…
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DARTMOUTH – Charlie Keating, a giant in the Canadian cable television industry – in all senses of the word – died of cancer Tuesday morning. He was 72.
Now, the term “larger than life” may seem a cliché to some, but there wasn’t one person contacted by www.cartt.ca on the passing of the founder of Dartmouth Cable TV (which later became Nova Scotia’s Access Communications) who didn’t use the term.
“He was a great industry individual and a great man in his own right,” said John Thomas, president of Delta Cable. “He was a remarkable man and a wonderful…
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DID YOU HEAR THE ONE about the telephone company delivering TV over its wireline system that’s now one of the top 10 BDUs in Canada?
No? Well, in less than three years, Manitoba Telecom Services’ MTS TV has become a very meaningful presence in the city of Winnipeg. With 260,000 total households, MTS TV has captured nearly a quarter of the market.
While many on the cable side of the equation often dismiss the telcos’ ability to provide TV over their “limited” or “skinny” pipe, citing bandwidth constraints in comparison to the “fat cable pipe”, it seems consumers like…
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