| Type | Public (TSX: SJR.B NYSE: SJR) |
|---|---|
| Industry | telecommunications |
| Founded | 1966 (as the Capital Cable Television Co. Ltd.) 1984 (as Shaw Cablesystems Ltd.) Edmonton, Alberta, Canada |
| Headquarters | Calgary, Alberta, Canada |
| Key people | J.R. Shaw (Executive Chair) Jim Shaw (Vice Chair) Bradley S. Shaw (CEO) Peter J. Bissonnette (President)[1] |
| Products | cable television, high speed internet, telephone |
| Revenue | CAD$ 4.74 billion (FY 2011)[1] |
| Net income | CAD$ 473 million (FY 2011)[1] |
| Employees | 12,500 (August 2011)[1] |
| Website | www.shaw.ca |
Shaw Communications is one of Canada's largest telecommunications company that provides telephone, Internet and television services as well as broadcasting. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. It provides services mostly in British Columbia and Alberta, with smaller systems in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Northwestern Ontario and Hamilton, Ontario.
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Shaw was founded as Capital Cable Television Co. Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1966.[2] The company changed its name to Shaw Cablesystems Ltd. and went public on the TSX in 1983. The company grew during the 1980s and 1990s through acquisitions of firms including Classicomm in the Toronto area, Access Communications in Nova Scotia, Fundy Cable in New Brunswick, Trillium Cable in Ontario, Telecable in Saskatchewan, Greater Winnipeg Cablevision[3] (serving areas east of the Red River), and Videon Cablesystems of Winnipeg (serving areas west of the Red River), which had itself previously acquired Vidéotron's assets in Alberta. However, two swaps, in 1994 and 2001, with Rogers Cable have resulted in its assets being restricted to western Canada and a few areas of northern Ontario.[4]
In July 2009, Shaw announced that they will be acquiring Mountain Cablevision[5] in Hamilton, Ontario, ending a ten-year-old non-competition agreement[6] with rival Rogers Cable. Approval of the purchase on October 22, 2009[7] by the regulatory body, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), has been granted, and it was stated to be in the public's interest.[8] The acquisition was Shaw's first cable property east of Sault Ste. Marie since the 2001 swaps with Rogers and Cogeco.
In April 2011, Shaw announced that it would not be launching a wireless (i.e. cellular) network until 2012. In 2008, Shaw had purchased wireless spectrum for areas covering Western Canada and Northern Ontario.
In May 2011, Shaw announced its intent to spend $100 million, to convert its analog cable to digital over a 16 month period starting August 2011. Its 20% of subscribers still on analog cable would receive a free digital cable box rental. Switching to digital has the effect of freeing up bandwidth, which Shaw plans on re-allocating for internet bandwidth. 100 and 250 Mbit/s internet speeds will be phased in throughout this timeframe.
On April 30, 2009, Shaw announced a deal to acquire three television stations — CHWI-TV in Windsor, Ontario, CKNX-TV in Wingham, Ontario and CKX-TV in Brandon, Manitoba — from CTVglobemedia. CTV had indicated that it would shut down the stations, all of which were incurring extensive financial losses, later in the year if a buyer could not be found, and had placed them on the market at a price of just $1 each.[9] However, it was reported on June 30, 2009 that Shaw has backed out of the deal and is declining to complete the purchase.[10] CHWI-TV would remain on the air as is; CKNX-TV would become a repeater of London station CFPL-TV in September 2009, while CKX-TV would close down entirely in October 2009.
In February 2010, Shaw announced an agreement with the financially troubled Canwest, whereby Shaw would buy an 80% voting interest, and 20% equity interest, in the restructured entity of Canwest, pending approvals from the CRTC and others.[11] Three months later, following negotiations with rival bidders, the company said it would purchase the entirety of Canwest's broadcasting assets, including the interests in the CW Media subsidiary currently held by Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.[12] Canwest's newspapers were not part of the Shaw deal and were sold separately to Postmedia Network.
The acquisition was completed on October 27, 2010, after CRTC approval for the sale was announced on October 22.[13] The Canwest properties are now reorganized into what is now called Shaw Media division.
As part of the benefits package for the acquisition, Shaw will fund improvements to Canadian broadcasting, among them as follows:
Shaw is the parent of Shaw Broadcast Services (previously Shaw Satellite Services, Canadian Satellite Communications, or Cancom) and, through Shaw Broadcast Services,[14] Shaw Direct, one of Canada's two national direct broadcast satellite providers. For many years it also owned a number of radio stations and specialty television services; these assets were later spun off into Corus Entertainment in an effort to satisfy a now-repealed CRTC policy discouraging cross-ownership of cablesystems and specialty services.
In 2008, Shaw entered the Advanced Wireless Spectrum auction with the intention of possibly becoming a wireless phone provider. The auction ended July 2008, giving Shaw Communications enough spectrum to build a wireless network in its home provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario.[15]
Shaw has been slowly expanding its television offerings over the last few years, with most of the increases occurring in the HDTV part of the dial. In 2008, Shaw added Speed HD, Encore Avenue HD, TLC HD, Super Channel 1 & 2 HD and HBO Canada HD. There are full-HD channels that have not yet been picked up by Shaw.
In December 2010 Shaw filed complaints with the CRTC to have competing internet video services such as Netflix classified as broadcasters under Canadian law.[16] In the same month Shaw introduced usage based billing on internet plans and lowered plan caps an average of 25% while introducing overage fees of $1 to $2 per gigabyte.[17] On February 8, 2011, Shaw agreed to put a hold on usage based billing for its services.[18]
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