Shaw Communications is a Canadian telecommunications company that provides telephone, Internet and television services. Shaw is headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. It provides services mostly in British Columbia and Alberta, with smaller systems in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario.

History

Shaw was founded as Capital Cable Television Co. Ltd. in Edmonton, Alberta, in 1966. 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, and Videon Cablesystems of Winnipeg, 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.

In July 2009, Shaw announced that they will be acquiring Mountain Cablevision in Hamilton, Ontario, pending CRTC approval. This would be Shaw's first cable system acquisition east of Sault Ste. Marie since the 2001 swaps with Rogers and Cogeco. The sale was approved on October 22, 2009.

Other activities

Shaw is also the parent of Shaw Broadcast Services (previously Shaw Satellite Services, Canadian Satellite Communications, or Cancom) and, through Shaw Broadcast Services, 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specialty television services; these assets were later spun off into Corus Entertainment in an effort to satisfy a now-repealed Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) policy discouraging cross-ownership of cablesystems and specialty services.

Current issues

Shaw has only recently entered the phone market with its "Digital Phone" product, and has been successful in taking customers from Telus and Bell, the local incumbent phone carrier in western Canada. However, Telus has entered into Shaw's home territory of television and is taking customers from it. The companies have competed for years over their internet products.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.

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. In 2008, Shaw added Speed HD, Encore Avenue HD, TLC HD, Super Channel 1 & 2 HD and HBO Canada HD. There are packages of full-HD channels such as those offered by High Fidelity HDTV, which offer entirely high-definition content and have not yet been picked up by Shaw.

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. However, it was reported on June 30, 2009 that Shaw has backed out of the deal and is declining to complete the purchase. CHWI-TV would remain on the air as is through at least 2010; CKNX-TV would become a repeater of London station CFPL-TV in September 2009, while CKX-TV would close down entirely in October 2009.

Eponymous buildings

• Shaw Tower, Vancouver
• Shaw Barlow, Calgary
• Shaw Court, Calgary
• Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton
• Shaw Centre, Saskatoon

Gallery

Image:shaw3997.JPG|Shaw Conference Centre, Edmonton.Image:shaw-truck-4548.JPG|Shaw Technician Van.

See also

• Shaw TV
• Classicomm

Notes

1. Milestones
2. Shaw Communications press release: "Shaw Affiliate to acquire Mountain Cablevision", 7/16/2009.
3. Shaw Communications press release: "Shaw Closes Mountain Cablevision Transaction", October 22, 2009.
4. Shaw Broadcast Services
5. Shaw Digital Phone Launch
6. [1] Telus TV
7. Wireless spectrum auction
8. CTV Accepts Shaw Offer to Buy Local Stations, CTVglobemedia press release via TradeMarkets, April 30, 2009
9. Grant Robertson, "Shaw cancels deal for 3 CTV stations". The Globe and Mail, June 30, 2009.
10. Shaw Conference Centre

External links

• Shaw Communications Inc.
• CRTC chart of Shaw Communications' assets