A hard-nosed businessman, he made a brilliant cable territory swap, competed ferociously with Telus and pulled Global television from the Canwest inferno
FEW OCCASIONS BETTER illustrated the cultural divide between the world of the western bottom-up entrepreneur and that of Ottawa’s top-down public service bureaucracy than when Jim Shaw and Konrad von Finckenstein crossed swords in a hearing room.
There, front and centre of the raised platform bearing commissioners, would be the multilingual von Finckenstein, a six-foot-something-awesome lawyer who was chief legal adviser on the original North American Free Trade negotiations, served as head of the Competition Bureau, became a Federal…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications vice chair and former CEO Jim Shaw has died at the age of 60, the Shaw family announced today.
“It is with great sadness that the family of James R. Shaw (Jim Shaw) announces his passing on Wednesday, January 3rd, 2018 after a brief illness,” reads a statement from the family.
“A leader and visionary who never stopped caring for others,” says the statement, Jim is survived by his wife Kathryn, his mother Carol, his father JR, his children Haley (Fred), Parker (Megan), Kennedy, Kathryn’s children Monty, Katelyn, Carly, his mother-in-law Janet, his sisters Heather (Jim) and…
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SEATTLE – Amazon Prime Video in late September first announced it had picked up the BBC and AMC crime drama McMafia for 200 territories, excluding the U.S. and Canada, where AMC was to air the eight-part crime drama.
However, Amazon on Thursday announced it will exclusively stream McMafia in Canada on its local Amazon Prime Video platform from January 2, a day after the world premiere on BBC in the UK.
McMafia, based on a best-selling non-fiction book, is a co-production involving the BBC, AMC Network and Cuba Pictures, and is distributed internationally by BBC Worldwide. A spokesperson for BBC Worldwide…
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CANADIAN CABLE SYSTEMS Alliance CEO Jay Thomson knows Canadian networks and media inside and out. How could he not? Before the CCSA, he worked for the Canadian Cable Television Association, the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Canadian Media Producers Association (Telus and the CRTC, too).
The long-time Ottawa executive was hired as CEO of the CCSA in January 2017, replacing Alyson Townsend, who was let go in the summer of 2016. Thomson is steeped in the business and, as importantly, knows government – especially an Ottawa whose politicians and bureaucrats tend to be…
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LE PDG DE LA CANADIAN Cable Systems Alliance, Jay Thomson connaît les réseaux et les médias canadiens de fond en comble. Comment pourrait-il en être autrement ? Avant de travailler à la CCSA, il a travaillé à l’Association canadienne des télécommunications par câble (ACTC), Canadian Association of Internet Providers, l’Association canadienne des radiodiffuseurs et la Canadian Media Producers Association (également à Telus et au CRTC).
Ce dirigeant de longue date d’Ottawa a été embauché comme PDG de la CCSA en remplacement de Alyson Townsend qui a quitté son poste à l’été 2016. Thomson est à l’aise dans ce secteur et, de manière aussi…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications has unveiled a new product to help business owners monitor and protect their businesses while also providing analytical insights.
SmartSurveillance is an enterprise-grade managed video surveillance solution that offers features such as motion search analytics in a selected area of interest, heat mapping analytics for motion data to help gain insights into customer behaviour, or a video wall that groups multiple video streams into one view that can be watched from anywhere with an Internet connection.
SmartSurveillance may be bundled with Shaw Business' managed WiFi and network security solutions SmartWiFi and SmartSecurity and maintained through one integrated dashboard. Professionally…
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Whatever the future of TV may hold
GATINEAU – The rise of online TV distribution platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and others are upending the delicate balance of the Canadian broadcasting system and that means the federal government and the CRTC need to change the way they regulate the sector. In a nutshell, Canadian broadcasters, producers and distributors want these platforms treated the same way they are.
In comments to the CRTC’s consultation on new TV program distribution models (which was requested by the federal government ostensibly as the first step towards modernizing the Broadcasting Act and Telecom Act), many…
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LONDON and BARRIE – Logistics company Drexel Industries this week announced it will acquire mobile phone accessories and consumer electronics devices company Affinity Electronics of Canada.
The acquisition will combine Affinity’s assets and experience as an established mobile phone solutions company with Drexel’s strength in third party logistics, says the company’s press release. “Drexel’s retailer connected digital infrastructure is the catalyst for further growth and expansion into the mobility and connected home arena,” it adds.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Affinity and Drexel distribute products through Canadian partners, including: Amazon, Bell, Best Buy, Canadian Tire, Costco, Giant Tiger, Home Depot, Hudson…
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OTTAWA – The majority of Canada’s mobile wireless carriers have told the CRTC that redefining home network to include public Wi-Fi will have serious negative consequences on the mobile market while smaller providers Ice Wireless and Execulink argue Wi-Fi First providers are needed to inject much needed competition to an already highly concentrated market.
The final round of submissions on the CRTC’s Governor-in-Council demand that it reconsider its March wholesale wireless roaming decision were due December 1st. This is something ISED Minister Navdeep Bains announced during June’s Canadian Telecom Summit.
For Bell Canada, the only issue…
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MONTREAL – As Bell Canada CEO George Cope warned a month ago – his company was not about to let Telus, Rogers and Freedom keep the low-cost wireless market to themselves and in response, the company announced the launch of Lucky Mobile today.
Created to compete with Rogers’ chatr, Telus’ Public Moble and Shaw’s Freedom (and it seems the initial markets being launched are exactly Freedom’s footprint), the low-cost prepaid brand’s plans start at $20/month, for talk and text, but not data, a price which generally undercuts everyone in the space. (Chatr offers a…
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