CALGARY – To the chagrin (but maybe not the surprise) of Canadian broadcasters, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw said Thursday that pushing digital cable is not at the top of the company’s priority list.
During its quarterly conference call with financial analysts to discuss its third quarter results, Shaw was asked why its strategy when it comes to marketing digital cable is so different when compared to Rogers. While Rogers carries just about every channel under the sun and strongly markets digital cable, Shaw has been far more reluctant to add many of the new category two channels…
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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 – Maintaining it’s long-standing support of Bullying Awareness Week, Astral Media’s Family Channel is launching its 2005 "Take the Pledge" campaign.
The week is November 14 to 20, 2005, and its focus is to encourage kids to stick up for each other rather than silently watch if they see someone being bullied.
During the week, special programming will air on Family to challenge kids to take "The Pledge," an empowering statement that exemplifies the Bullying Awareness Week message that bystanders can be part of the solution to the problems of bullying.
Containing such lines as "I can help…
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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
TORONTO – The Canadian Football League (CFL) announced today that it has signed a two-year programming agreement with Corus Entertainment’s radio division to broadcast the Grey Cup championship game across Canada this year and next. This year, Corus Radio will broadcast the 93rd Grey Cup game from Vancouver’s BC Place on Sunday, November 27th. This exclusive agreement, administered by Deep Sky Sound Marketing Ideas, Corus Radio’s national marketing and programming division, extends Corus’ involvement in broadcasting the CFL as the official rights holder for six of the nine CFL teams.
The Grey Cup game will be covered…
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TORONTO – Brian Cooper, president and COO of Insight Sports, has resigned. This announcement comes a week after the company announced it hired Ron Bremner as CEO.
In an e-mail to friends and employees, Cooper said he has resigned to pursue other interests.
Six-year-old Insight (which is majority owned by investor and entrepreneur Larry Tanenbaum) owns a piece of the NHL Network and will soon launch soccer channel GolTV, Casino and Gaming Television (CGTV) as well as the World Fishing Network. It’s also behind the new pay television applicant Spotlight TV and owns a piece of Score Media.
“We’re…
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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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TORONTO – 102.1 the Edge’s annual listeners’ choice awards will be hosted this year by actor/comedian/rap artist(?) Tom Green.
“Returning to his musical roots (his rap group Organized Rhyme had a Canadian hit with Check the O.R. in 1992), Green is not only the host of the 2005 CASBYs, he’s also one of the performers at the show,” says the press release.
Now a solo rap artist, Green and his Keepin’ It Real Crew (DJ E.Z. Mike, pro skateboard legend "Playboy" Jeremy Klein and MC Shawn Anthony) join previously announced CASBY (Canadian Artists Selected By You) performers Sloan, Theory of…
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