According to SatBeams, the expected launch date for Anik G1 from Baikonur Cosmodrome is September 30th, 2012. That means Shaw could realistically have new channels up and running by mid to late October, although that may be why most places list November as the start-up date. New for November, anyone?

The list of HD channels not carried by Shaw Direct is growing fast.

I'm just going to list the English specialty channels

Sportsnet World HD
NBA TV Canada HD
Bold HD
Docementary HD
Wild TV HD
WFN HD
YTV HD
Movietime HD
W HD
Food Network HD
Much HD
Discovery Channel HD
Space HD
Bravo! HD
Family HD
Disney XD HD
MPix HD (East Only)
MExcess HD (East Only)
MFun! HD (East Only)
HLN HD
MSNBC HD
Spike HD
Bloomberg HD
CBC News Network HD
OLN HD
WPIX HD
KTLA HD
WSBK HD
radX
eqHD
HIFI
APTN HD
CBS Sports Network HD
The Weather Network HD
NFL Network HD
Turner Classic Movies HD
NASA TV HD
CityNews HD
OWN HD

That is quite a list and it doesn't even include the missing french HD channels or local channels.
and the really lame part is that Shaw rarely offers competitive hardware upgrades that companies like Best Buy or The Brick don't already offer. If you pull their teeth on the phone, you MAY get elevated to "customer retention". I guess Shaw isn't going to offer any HD material that Global doesn't own, eh?
No Space, Much, Discovery, Bold....sad Shaw.
My receivers are getting ready for EBay, and then it will be time for Bell to grab me as a new customer.
They have to pay for the Leafs, so my subscription fees will help them there :)
Get it together, Shaw

I am more of a realist. Although I think that Shaw may get posession of the bird by Nov1, programming on it will not begin to be made availavble to subscribers before December.

Satellite launches are ofter delayed too. One failure pushes the schedule back for everything.

-Mike

very disappointing, i was really hoping they would finally offer a college sports package with football and basketball from the espn channels like bell already does and rogers etc include in their super sports pack this coming season.

if stuff isn't ready to be offered until late fall, college football will already be done.

Shaw is such a joke that stock analysts just downgraded them again last week. Brad Shaw has been shown to less of a business leader than his brother. These guys couldn't even run a convenience store profitably. They must thank the CRTC every morning.

Satellites are never ready to go when launched. Typically they are put in an unused slot and tested for 4 to 6 weeks before being moved to their permanent location.

So what's Brad going to do - send out installers to do 400,000 LNBF swaps and deliver 600,000 6XX boxes on Jan 2/13 - Fraid Knot.

When they do get these services and the price of there subscription goes up,won't everyone just complain about the cost then. Myself I only see about 3 channels on that list that I would like.

The plan is to get as many customers as possible to voluntarily change out their receivers and LNBFs in next year or so. When the new satellite becomes available, that will be pushed, as they transition existing HD (and likely some SD) channels to MPEG4 on G1.