Search Results for: shaw

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw customers (Star Choice, too) get NFL Network

CALGARY – The NFL season may have kicked off last night (the Patriots beat the Raiders) but Shaw and Star Choice customers got their extra point today. Shaw Communications launched the NFL Network on both of its digital platforms, at no additional cost. On Star Choice, however, there’s a free preview for two months before the service is placed in its $2.50 monthly sports package, for no additional fee. League-owned NFL Network is a 24/7 channel dedicated solely to pro football. Shaw also announced that anyone ordering NFL Sunday Ticket will be entered in a draw for a trip… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw commits up to $500,000 to Katrina relief

CALGARY – Shaw Communications today announced the company and its employees will assist the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The company is making an initial donation of $250,000 to support the efforts of the Red Cross as they help families through this tragedy. In addition, Shaw will match all employee donations to the Red Cross dollar-for-dollar for a total contribution of up to $500,000 by the company, in addition to the contribution of individual employees. "Like all our customers, everyone at Shaw has been shocked and saddened by the impact of Hurricane Katrina and we’re rallying our team to do… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

The TUESDAY INTERVIEW: Mirko Bibic, chief, regulatory affairs, Bell Canada

THERE IS SO MUCH on the docket for lawyers working the telecom file in Canada these days, it’s almost hard to keep track. The CRTC begins its hearings into forbearance from regulating the local phone market on September 26th (same week as Cable Week) while at the same time Industry Canada is deep into its Telecom Policy Review. Then there’s the Federal Court appeal of the CRTC’s telecom win-back rules and the ILECs’ VOIP decision appeal to cabinet, among other things. So how will a coherent national telecom policy be developed from this muddle of related… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Edmonton Oilers announce TV schedule

EDMONTON – The Edmonton Oilers have announced their 2005-2006 TV schedule, which will see all but four of the 82 regular season hockey games televised. Fifty of the 78 broadcast games will be on Rogers Sportsnet West, with 12 games on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, 10 exclusively available on pay-per view, and six on TSN. The pay-per-view games will be available to customers of Bell ExpressVu, Star Choice, and Shaw digital cable. The first Oilers pay-per-view special will air Nov. 3, when Edmonton visits Detroit. Pricing will be announced later. The Oilers’ home opener is Oct. 5 against… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Randy Elliot to retire from Shaw; colleagues sing his praises

CALGARY – Longtime Shaw Cable executive Randy Elliot will be retiring on Oct. 31, 2005, company CEO Jim Shaw announced yesterday. Elliot (right), currently Senior Vice-President of Technical Operations, joined Shaw in 1971, becoming the first person hired to look after the company’s technical aspects. Colleagues were quick to say how he’s made a huge contribution to the industry. “He’s been contributing to the rapid expansion of technology in the cable industry: telephones, data, digital, high definition, and fibre,” says Dick Green, president and CEO of Cable Television Laboratories, the research consortium for the cable industry. Elliot has been… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

The TUESDAY INTERVIEW: Ed Olsen, GM, Compton Communications – the smallest VOD player in N.A.

WHILE WE CAN’T SAY for sure that Compton Communications will be the smallest North American video on demand provider when it launches this fall, we figure it’s pretty unlikely that many other 5,000-customer cable companies in Canada or the U.S. are planning on offering it that soon. It’s a very expensive technology, fraught with difficult to solve issues, especially for a small operator. Think Paramount’s EVP of programming will have Compton’s VOD launch on his priority list, for example? Compton Cable (which serves the Port Perry, Ont. region, about an hour’s drive northeast of Toronto, on Lake Scugog) has… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Shaw family buys $25 million more of the company

CALGARY – Shaw Communications was advised today that the Shaw Family (its controlling shareholder), and entities owned or controlled by them, completed the purchase of an additional 1,000,000 Class B Non-Voting Shares of the company. Trading at around the $25.80 mark this morning, the transaction is worth about $25.8 million. Company CEO Jim Shaw and founder JR Shaw have told the financial community that they believe the share price is undervalued and the family will continue its practice of buying shares when it sees fit. According to information provided to the company, the Shaw Family, and entities owned or… Continue Reading

Cable / Telecom News

Voice market gets Googled

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – As if the voice market wasn’t crowded or confusing enough, Google Inc. yesterday launched Google Talk, a downloadable Windows application that enables its Gmail users to quickly and easily talk or IM with their friends for free. Google Talk is not voice in the way that carriers such as Bell or Rogers or Shaw or Cogeco or Primus offer it. Those carriers offer voice service the way most people use it – on the phone. Google Talk is chatting via computer "Google Talk further enriches our users’ communications experience, whether they choose to communicate via… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Gord Harris takes PD: job at 640 Toronto

TORONTO – Corus Radio Toronto today announced the appointment of Gord Harris as program director at AM 640 Toronto. Harris was most recently PD at Corus stations AM 980 and The Hawk in London. A veteran in the industry, he operated a private radio consulting business in the early 1990s and has worked with Broadcast News, WIC, Rogers, Standard and CHUM (including 680News and CFRB). His educational background spans the fields of economics, political science, law and film, and he currently teaches journalism courses at Fanshawe College and the University of Western Ontario. Harris replaces Scott Armstrong who was… Continue Reading

Radio / Television News

Canadian-made tech show to air on G4 in U.S.

TORONTO – Technology Cancon will begin airing south of the border this fall on G4techTV. Call for Help, the first Canadian-produced G4techTV Canada television production, will be back into the homes of American fans in September on G4, the national cable and satellite network available in 53 million homes in the United States. Call for Help airs at 6 p.m. ET and 9 p.m. PT weeknights on G4techTV Canada (which is owned jointly by Rogers Communications and Shaw Communications and operated by Rogers in Toronto). This is the second international… Continue Reading