SO, IS THE TELUS Canadian Football League mobile application exclusive to Telus customers or not? On Wednesday during the CRTC’s hearing into the purchase of Canwest Television by Shaw Communications, that caused some confusion among commissioners – and yours truly.
The day before, Shaw Communications EVP Brad Shaw said he thought it pretty rich that a company with a mobile app that is exclusive to its own customers would want to make sure other carriers aren’t allowed to offer such content only to its own customers. It’s a point Telus has made before and did again Wednesday.
So yesterday, commissioners…
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CALGARY – Like everyone else, the Writers Guild of Canada says it’s pretty happy Shaw Communications decided to buy Canwest Global.
But also like a lot of others, the WGC wants the tangible benefits package improved.
The WGC insisted the Shaw benefits package should be worth no less than 10% of the $2.047 billion transaction as valued by the Commission, or at least $204.7 million of clear and incremental benefit to the industry.
Shaw has asked for less, given the intangible benefits of saving the company, keeping it intact and the costs already incurred to go through the CCAA process with…
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CALGARY – If the Shaw-Canwest $200-million tangible benefits package has to be altered or improved – as many, including the CRTC chair on Tuesday morning, have suggested – the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance tabled an idea to take advantage of that potentially rebuilt benefits package it says will help its members survive.
The CCSA represents more than a hundred independent, mostly rural, cable operators across Canada, many of whom must rely on one of the two Canadian satellite relay distribution undertakings (Shaw Direct and Bell TV) for their Canadian specialty channels. They are just too far away to be able…
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CALGARY – Shaw’s application to buy Canwest excludes Canadians with disabilities, according to Media Access Canada (MAC).
MAC, the Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians, the Canadian Hard of Hearing Association and the Canadian National Institute for the Blind appeared before the CRTC on Wednesday asking that a portion of the deal’s tangible benefits be used to fund research, technical innovation, business modelling and education initiatives to improve captioning quality and increase levels of described content.
“Given Shaw’s technical expertise and financial strength, we had hoped to see leadership to increase and improve accessible programming for the one in four Canadians whose…
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WE’RE NOT USED TO what we saw Tuesday. When Shaw Communications appears before the CRTC, we more often than not witness quarrelsome company executives facing off against sometimes testy commissioners.
We just have to point to a couple of pieces of evidence. There’s more, but these will give you a sense of what we mean (we’re partial to the one where Shaw said last fall they weren’t going to buy broadcasters…)
But today? Compared to past Shaw-involved hearings, “this was super-fun-time-happy-hour,” is how wish-I-hadn’t-but-did put it to Global TV reporter David Boushy.
Tuesday morning we had a panel of…
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GATINEAU – Canada’s public and private broadcasters are urging the CRTC to implement a local-into-local signal carriage regime for the country’s direct-to-home (DTH) broadcast distributors, saying the time has come to force them to comply with the provisions in the Broadcasting Act.
Private broadcasters Canwest and CTVglobemedia acknowledge in their submissions to the Regulator for 2010-488, the review of the direct-to-home satellite distribution policy, that Shaw Direct and Bell TV have capacity constraints, but this doesn’t take away from the fact the TV stations are harmed financially when they aren’t carried.
“Unfortunately, where a local television is not…
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CALGARY – “Put yourself into my shoes,” CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein asked Shaw Cable’s executives.
The chair made the plea during an exchange Monday morning at the Airport Four Points Sheraton in Calgary during the day-long hearing into the western cableco’s applications to renew most of its cable licenses.
Due to a number of regulatory transgressions and questions over the years, (especially concerning advertising messages on some of its community channels that were contrary to the regulations, and treatment of some specialty channels), Shaw was granted only a short term license renewal by the CRTC back in 2008…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications executives told the CRTC today that it has no plans to hoard all of its content when it gains control of Canwest Global – and that when it comes to the digital transition, it would rather upgrade all of its transmitters, not just the ones in mandatory markets.
Commissioners were happily caught off-guard by the some of the commitments the big MSO/ISP/home phone/future wireless provider made this morning in Calgary.
When asked by CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein what the company planned to do in the unregulated spaces of mobile and broadband and how much content it…
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TORONTO – As the company gears up to launch its wireless service next year, Shaw has put out the call for new employees.
Shaw will host a “networking event” in downtown Toronto this Thursday evening, with qualified candidates invited back the following day for a more formal interview. Details and the location of the event will be revealed to the first 300 guests who RSVP here.
While short on specifics, Shaw’s announcement said that it’s looking to fill “a wide range of positions” within its IT and Engineering teams.
www.shaw.ca
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TORONTO and CALGARY – Add Shaw to the short list of distributors who have added Rogers Sportsnet One to their programming rosters.
Starting Wednesday, Shaw said that “the vast majority” of its customers will receive Sportsnet One as part of their existing television package. The channel will be available to all Shaw digital TV customers in a free preview until October 31, and then be added to the Shaw Digital TV, HD Plus, and HD Sports packages.
Shaw Direct customers will have Sportsnet One included in the English and French Essentials package, and in the HD Sports packages.
"As customer advocates, we’ve…
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