VANCOUVER – Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw said today that no matter what the rumor mill might say, the company is not for sale.
When asked specifically if the company is for sale and if Bell Canada is asking to buy, Shaw (left) said: “Lots of people have rumored that. The family has no interest in selling it, so we don’t really have any comment because it’s not for sale.”
Okay, but what about Star Choice. Its marketing was very low-key heading into Christmas compared to its competitors, especially satellite compatriot Bell ExpressVu?
Shaw: “(Star Choice does marketing) a bit different. They do more direct sales and different channels than the other guy. (ExpressVu does) a lot more television and high cost, higher profile marketing.”
As for the flat growth in comparison to ExpressVu, “it’s not setting the place on fire,” said Shaw, “but financial performance is good so as a shareholder, you’re happy.”
Is the company looking to sell Star Choice?
Shaw: “No. Not at this time. I get my directions from the board every meeting but I haven’t gotten that direction, they’re pretty happy with it actually.”
At 29% penetration of basic subscribers, Shaw Digital Cable is lagging its peers. Will it concentrate on boosting digital TV customers in 2006?
Shaw: “No. That’s the way we will focus on our products. We could drive the digital harder, but we’re actually focusing more on telephone and the Internet side than on digital cable, if only because it’s a better pop-up for us. Not that we don’t offer (digital TV) we just don’t push it as hard as say Rogers or someone else.”
Will the company be replacing its open chief technology officer position (former CTO Randy Elliot retired in October)?
Shaw: “Peter (Bissonnette, president) and I are backfilling. I’m CTO (laughing). We have a huge depth of engineering people so that’s not an issue. We’ll either pull from out of the ranks or bring somebody new in.”
However, he added, “we haven’t started looking yet.”
Will the company be offering wireless telephony soon?
“We’re going to deploy residential telephony first and then we’ll start looking at wireless next year. We’re intrigued by some of the new technologies like WiMax and WiFi but we haven’t done enough work yet to give you a solid plan,” he said.
“We could get some frequency and do it on our own. The issue is, do you want to be the fourth man to a four-man party and be the smallest and would that work or not?”
Shaw said the company is facing enough of a challenge already installing wired telephony. “We’re having a hard time meeting the demand for the products we have, people are signing up so quick.”
He said Shaw fielded 400 calls yesterday for phone service in Vancouver and 100 signed up on the first day of the announcement. The company is aiming for 200,000 telephony subscribers by the end of fiscal 2006 (August 31st).
“We’re more concerned about installation capacity. Every working day we’re doing about 500 (phone) installs in the other four centres (Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Victoria), but what we’ll be doing in Vancouver will be just as much as those other four centres combined, so we’re more worried the demand will be so strong that we won’t be able to keep up.”
Story and photo by Greg O’Brien
