from press release

Very Short on details

CALGARY, ALBERTA--(Marketwire - Oct. 19, 2011) - Shaw Communications Inc. (TSX:SJR.B) (NYSE:SJR) ("Shaw") announced today that is has reached a long term agreement with Bell Media ("Bell") covering 30 Canadian programming services including some of the most popular services like TSN, TSN2, RDS, Space and Discovery Channel.

"We are pleased that we have been successful in reaching a comprehensive, market-based deal with Bell that balances our competitive need to provide our customers with choice and packaging flexibility while ensuring that customers continue to receive a wide variety of programming services at reasonable prices. This is a clear indication that distributors and programming services can achieve reasonable commercial arrangements based on competitive and market realities," said Peter Bissonnette, President of Shaw Communications, Inc.

Customers will continue to receive these programming services in the traditional packages that they have enjoyed for many years, or they have the option of creating their own programming line-up through the Shaw Plan Personalizer.

Hopefully this means that there will be a couple more HD channels coming Shaw's way.

My guess is any Shaw channels they have thats HD or yet to be HD, Bell will carry and any channels Bell has thats HD or yet to be HD, Shaw Cable/Direct will carry.

Hopefully this will mean that similar agreements will be in the offing for other providers, such as Eastlink and Rogers, who might be interested in picking up Bell owned channels such as Space HD, Discovery HD, and Bravo HD.

Well it seems to be happening already as Bell now has some new Shaw channels, like HGTV HD, Food Network HD, and History HD. I'm sure Shaw will soon have more Bell channels in the lineup like Space HD and Discovery Channel HD.

The announcement doesn't seem to really say anything. Shaw already has TSN, TSN2, RDS, Space, and Discovery, and it has had these channels for a long time. Was a press release really necessary, to tell us we'll continue receiving the status quo?

The announcement specifically doesn't mention new channels, HD, or TSN Jets. Will we get new channels, existing channels launching in HD, and will we still need to pay $10/mo for TSN Jets, or will it be free like Bell offers it to their own customers?

I could be mistaken, but I'm assuming it was reffering to the HD versions. As BTV seems to have added Food HD,HGTV HD a few days befoe this annoucement. I think SD is getting ready to launch Bells HD version, they just need to make a few "technical" adjustments to the sat and receivers.

MCIBUS got it right it all about new or existing HD channels that both corporation own but were not sharing with each other. Hopefully they will trade carriage rights and not charge us more... loll Yeah right like that gonna happen!

That's good news, but the time it takes to get these backdoor deals signed gets on my nerves.

Shaw + Bell = Shell Game

Coming Soon:

Rogers + Shaw = Raw Deal

Bell + Rogers = De Beers On Tap Dance

Rogers Video Direct + ZIP = RIP