OTTAWA – Shaw Communications has asked the CRTC to drop the requirement that Shaw Cable and Shaw Direct be kept structurally separate.
In an application filed with the Commission, Shaw calls the 14-year old regulations “unnecessary in view of Canada’s competitive market for broadcasting distribution.” The rules were first introduced in 1997 when Shaw acquired DTH service Homestar, later christened Star Choice, and now known as Shaw Direct. At that time, they were designed to ensure that no undue preference or advantage passed between the company’s DTH service and Shaw’s cable business.
Shaw says those rules now “discriminate" against Shaw Direct, place it at an “unsustainable competitive disadvantage” in today’s environment, as well as limit its ability “to respond effectively to regulated and unregulated broadcasting competitors, including over-the-top (OTT) services.”
“It is unfair that Shaw is denied the right to realize the full range of administrative, corporate and operational efficiencies enjoyed by other BDUs and related corporate entities”, writes Shaw’s SVP of regulatory affairs, Jean Brazeau, in the application. “Indeed, no other BDU has any such structural separation conditions placed upon it.”
Comments and interventions are due by May 13, 2011.
