Shaw gets court approval for Canwest takeover
Last Friday, the Superior Court of Ontario approved a bid by Shaw Communications take control of the broadcasting assets of Canwest Global Communications Corp.
Shaw had bid $95 million to acquire a 20% equity interest and 80% voting interest of CanWest’s broadcasting assets which include the Global Television Network and eighteen specialty cable channels including, HGTV, Mystery TV, National Geographic Channel, Showcase, History and TVTropolis.
Shaw to trial FTTH internet service
Shaw Communications announced today that it will trial Gigabit Internet service which is 10 times faster than Shaw’s High-Speed Nitro Internet service, which currently runs at 100 Mbps per second.
The company gave few details of the trial other than to say the service would be “delivered over Fibre-to-the-Home (FTTH) and will be able to support new and emerging Internet applications that require faster download speeds.”
Shaw seeking to buy control of CanWest
The concentration of media ownership in Canada is getting a little stronger today after Shaw Communications announced this morning that it seeking to acquire a minimum 20% equity interest and 80% voting interest, which includes effective control, of a restructured Canwest Gobal Communications.
The deal is contingent upon approval of the Court in Ontario overseeing Canwest’s CCAA restructuring process.
Shaw announces new long distance rates for Asia
Shaw today announced new long distance telephone rates for digital phone customers calling China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam.
Under the new Asia Unlimited Calling Plan, residential phone customers can now make unlimited calls to landline and mobile numbers in China, Hong Kong and Singapore, and to landline numbers in Taiwan for $6.95 per month.
Select cable companies to offer Olympic VOD coverage
CTV and Rogers media have announced plans to offer viewers at select Canadian cable companies more than 700 hours of Video On Demand television coverage of the 2010 Winter Games.
Video on Demand (VOD) is a digital cable television service which allows a viewer to order a television program from an on-screen menu and have it delivered instantly to the television set, typically with the ability to pause, stop, rewind and fast forward programming.
Operating Income at Shaw rises 29% in latest quarter
Shaw Communications Inc., the country’s second largest cable television provider, has announced its financial results for the first quarter of its fiscal year ending November 30, 2009.
The company reported that, despite the worst economic recession in seventy years, service revenue ws $906 million, up 11% over the same period a year earlier while operating income was $475 million, up a whopping 29%.
Videotron tops one million cable phone customers
On November 25th, Videotron became the first cable company in Canada to reach one million cable telephone customers.
The company reached the milestone just under five years after it entered the landline telephone market.
Shaw adds to its list of multicultural channels
Shaw Cable this week announced it is expanding its cultural programming with the addition of three networks – TV Polonia, Commonwealth Broadcasting Network (CBN) and TLN en Espanol.
The new stations will be launching in Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria.
