Shaw Communications

Shaw Communications Inc.

Type	Public
Traded as	TSX-V: SJR.A (voting) TSX: SJR.B (non-voting) NYSE: SJR (non-voting)
Industry	Telecommunications Mass media
Founded	1966 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Headquarters	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Key people	J. R. Shaw (Executive Chairman) Jim Shaw (Vice Chairman) Bradley S. Shaw (CEO) Peter J. Bissonnette (President)[1]
Products	Cable television, high speed internet, telephone, direct broadcast satellite, network and specialty broadcasting, logistics tracking, radio
Revenue	CAD$ 5.142 billion (2013)[1]
Operating income	CAD$ 2.220 billion (2013)[1]
Net income	CAD$ 784 million (2013)[1]
Number of employees	14,000 (2014)[2]
Subsidiaries	Shaw Media
Website	www.shaw.ca

Shaw Communications logo, used from 1993 to 1997

Shaw Communications logo, used from 1997 to 2012

Shaw Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company that provides telephone, Internet and television services as well as mass media related services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides services mostly in British Columbia and Alberta, with smaller systems in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Northern Ontario.

History

Shaw was founded as Capital Cable Television Company, Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1966.^[3] 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^[4] (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.^[5]

Prior to 2003, Shaw owned cable systems in the United States previously owned by Moffat Communications, serving six communities in Florida (Eastern Pasco County, Clermont, Palm Coast, Ormond Beach, West Palm Beach and Doral), and the Houston, Texas suburbs of Kingwood, Lake Conroe and Lake Livingston. In February 2003, the Florida systems would be sold to Time Warner Cable (with the West Palm Beach and Doral systems later sold to Comcast, and the other systems spun off to Bright House Networks), while the Texas systems were sold to Cequel III, as part of its then-Cebridge Connections subsidiary (now Suddenlink Communications).^[6][7]

In 2008, Shaw entered the AWS 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.^[8] This spectrum ultimately went unused and was sold to Rogers Communications in January 2013.^[9]

In July 2009, Shaw announced its acquisition of Mountain Cablevision^[10] in Hamilton, Ontario, ending a ten-year-old non-competition agreement^[11] with rival Rogers Cable. The purchase was approved by the CRTC on October 22, 2009.^[12][13] The acquisition was Shaw's first cable property east of Sault Ste. Marie since the 2001 swaps with Rogers and Cogeco. Shaw's re-entry into Southern Ontario would be short-lived, as its Hamilton system would be resold to Rogers in January 2013.^[9]

Expansion to broadcasting

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.^[14] However, it was reported on June 30, 2009 that Shaw has backed out of the deal and is declining to complete the purchase.^[15] 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.^[16] 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 partially held by Goldman Sachs Capital Partners.^[17] 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, forming the Shaw Media division.^[18]

Shaw headquarters in Calgary

2012-present

In November 2012, Shaw underwent a corporate re-branding, introducing an updated logo and slogan, along with a new promotional campaign featuring animated robots (with particular focus on two, Bit and Bud) that live in a representation of Shaw's infrastructure, depicting them as being responsible for how their services work. The campaign was designed by the Vancouver-based agency Rethink, who were also responsible for Bell Canada's beaver characters Frank and Gordon.^[19][20]

In April 2013, Shaw Business Solutions took over Enmax's Envision subsidiary, which had built a fiber-optic network throughout Calgary. The acquisition was completed for $225 Million.^[21]

In 2014, Shaw partnered with Rogers Communications to launch Shomi, a subscription video on demand service.^[22]

In February 2015, Shaw Communications announced that they would close operations for service call centers in Edmonton, Calgary and Kelowna, and consolidate operations in Victoria, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Montreal. 1,600 of Shaw's 14,000 employees were affected by the consolidation and cuts.^[23] The company offered affected employees the option to relocate to its centralized offices, apply for a new job at their location, or leave the company with a severance package for former employees unable to relocate.^[23][24]

Planned acquisition of Wind Mobile

On December 16, 2015, Shaw announced its proposed acquisition of Wind Mobile in a deal worth approximately $1.6 billion.^[25] The transaction is expected to close in the second^[26] or third quarter of 2016, pending regulatory approval from the federal Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development and the Competition Bureau.^[27]

Divestment of media assets

On January 13, 2016, Shaw announced that it would sell Shaw Media to Corus Entertainment for $2.65 billion; the acquisition will be funded with $1.85 billion in cash, and the remainder in class B shares of Corus—which will give Shaw 39% of Corus's shares. The deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016, requires approval of the CRTC and shareholders, and will result in Shaw reverting to being solely a telecom company. The company stated that the revenue from the sale of these assets would go primarily towards its purchase of Wind Mobile. The sale will not include its stake in Shomi, which will remain owned by Shaw.^[28]

Other activities

Shaw is the parent of Shaw Broadcast Services (previously Shaw Satellite Services, Canadian Satellite Communications, or Cancom) and, through Shaw Broadcast Services,^[29] 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.

Television

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.

There are full-HD channels that have not yet been picked up by Shaw. Shaw usually picks up channels in HD format that have 60% or more of their programming in HD giving customers more High Definition Content.

Controversy

Internet usage-based billing

In December 2010, Shaw filed complaints with the CRTC to have competing internet video services such as Netflix classified as broadcasters under Canadian law.^[30] 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.^[31] On February 8, 2011, Shaw agreed to put a hold on usage based billing for its services.^[32]

Complaints

Customer service complaints are frequent among Canadian cable, mobile and Internet users, and Shaw ranked second-last for customer satisfaction among five cable TV providers in Western Canada in a 2013 survey by J.D. Power and Associates. It ranked last for Internet providers.^[23]

Eponymous buildings

• Shaw Barlow, Calgary
• Shaw Centre, Saskatoon
• Shaw Centre, Ottawa
• Shaw Park, Winnipeg
• Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton
• Shaw Court, Calgary
• Shaw Tower, Vancouver
• Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre - Not-for-profit Cultural and Learning Centre sponsored by Shaw Communications, Sidney, BC

Gallery

• 

  Shaw Communications Barlow office and Call Centre in Calgary

• 

  Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton

• 

  Shaw Technician Van, with the previous logo

See also

• Burning Log (TV program)
• Canwest
• Classicomm
• Cybertip.ca
• List of assets owned by Shaw Communications
• Media ownership in Canada
• Shaw TV
• Telecom

Notes

External links

• Official website
• Shaw Business Solutions
• CRTC chart of Shaw Communications' assets
• Company Profile Shaw Communications Inc. by Institute for Media and Communication Policy