WHILE BRAD SHAW is now CEO of a much different Shaw Communications than the one his father JR and brother Jim built and ran, one aspect hasn’t changed.
No handlers.
As a journalist, I’ve interviewed many CEOs and other senior executives at large corporations. Most of them come to interviews with one or two others in tow who keep tabs on the interview or have other tasks. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not the way the Shaws do things. Never been their style. When a reporter calls the company with a question, invariably the president or CEO is the…
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OTTAWA – Opponents and supporters of vertical integration faced off in a feisty debate during a session at the Canadian Media Production Association’s (CMPA) annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa on Thursday.
Representing the “prosecution” in the session, titled Vertical Integration on Trial, Telus argued that producers and independent broadcasters are going to be disadvantaged by having fewer outlets for distribution. As well, broadcasters would have to fight the vertically integrated company on issues such as channel placement.
A critical issue, according to Michael Hennessey, senior VP of government and regulatory affairs at Telus, is one of access where…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications falling share of new post-paid customers, thanks in part to new competition from a shared network Bell and Telus launched in November, 2009, has led Canaccord Genuity to recommend that wireless investors switch from Rogers to Telus.
Rogers gained only 49,000 of such customers (a much more lucrative lot compared to less valuable “pre-paid” top-up card customers) in the quarter compared to 109,000 the year before. In comparison, Bell gained about 157,000 of those customers and Telus scooped up 109,000 last quarter, noted Canaccord Genuity analysts Dvai Ghose and Sanford Lee.
As a result, Rogers accounted for…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications Inc. facing increased competition from traditional rivals BCE and Telus, and from new wireless upstarts such as Wind Mobile offered a modest 2011 growth forecast yesterday.
Rogers expects operating profit to be flat to slightly higher in 2011, at between $4.6 billion and $4.77 billion.
Profit in the fourth quarter, however, was still up by 5% to $327 million compared to the same quarter last year.
The company said it added 123,000 net wireless subscribers during the quarter ended December 31, 2010, which was down 5% from a year earlier. The decline for net post-paid customers was more…
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OTTAWA – Saying he’s defending consumer choice and competition, Industry Minister Tony Clement announced Tuesday that the Conservative government will appeal a Federal Court of Canada ruling that quashed a cabinet order allowing Egyptian-backed Globalive Wireless (whose retail brand is Wind) to operate in Canada.
The Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP), ACTRA, and Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were intervenors in the case.
"Overturning the Cabinet decision is a victory for Canadian ownership rules and a victory for Canadian culture," said Stephen Waddell, ACTRA’s national executive director. "Globalive was potentially the beginning of the end of our…
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TORONTO – BMO Capital Markets has downgraded its investment rating on Shaw Communications from outperform to market perform, based on the growing competitive threat from Telus, which could eventually capture one third of the B.C.-Alberta TV subscription market, says the bank.
“We are growing increasingly concerned with Shaw’s ability to withstand competitive pressures from Telus, specifically its Optik TV service,” writes Tim Casey, cable and media analyst at BMO Capital Markets, in his note to clients.
He cautions that Telus has the financial scale and strategic incentive to remain aggressive with marketing promotions this year and next, particularly since Shaw is…
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VANCOUVER – Fourth quarter revenue at Telus rose 4% to $2.55 billion, the company reported today, driven by a 9% growth in wireless revenue and 7% in wireline data revenues.
Wireless average revenue per unit (ARPU) increased 1.9% this quarter, the first year-over-year increase in 14 quarters. Smartphones represented 46% of post-paid gross additions in the fourth quarter, as compared to 25% in same period last year. Higher revenue smartphone subscribers now represent 33% of total post-paid subscribers compared to 20% a year ago. However, the cost of acquisition per gross addition increased year-over-year by 2.1% to $388, reflecting a…
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NOT LONG AGO I ASKED A CRTC senior policy advisor I know how work was going. It was one of those just-making-conversation questions we all ask, but I was a little surprised at his response:
“Livin’ the dream,” he excitedly told me. Now, I’m not sure my facial expression betrayed my wonder at that statement and I don’t remember what I said next, but he continued to add that he found it exciting, interesting and fun to debate and then help craft what would become the “law of the land.”
Upon reflection, it shouldn’t have come as such a shock –…
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GATINEAU – After a week of vitriol, legitimate consumer anger and utter political silliness, the CRTC today officially opened up a new review into wholesale broadband usage based billing
“The great concern expressed by Canadians over this issue is telling of how much the Internet has become an integral part of their lives,” said Konrad von Finckenstein, chairman of the CRTC, in a press release.
“Our approach is based on two fundamental principles: as a general rule, ordinary consumers served by Small ISPs should not have to fund the bandwidth used by the heaviest residential Internet consumers; and it is in…
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CALGARY – Shaw Communications said today that thanks to the national backlash over the concept of usage-based billing, it is asking customers to participate in consultation sessions to share their thoughts on how the big ISP should handle Internet usage allowances and billing.
That’s despite the fact the whole UBB furor has little to do with Shaw as it has just a single third party ISPs riding on its network and hadn’t yet begun charging retail customers for exceeding the gigabit download thresholds the company had set (“High Speed” has a 60 GB file transfer limit, “Extreme” has a 100…
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