Shaw Satellite Services (French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw) is a
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
company responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies via
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
. Shaw also operates Shaw Direct, a Canadian
direct broadcast satelliteDirect broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception, also referred to more broadly as direct-to-home signals...
service.
Previously known as
Canadian Satellite Communications Inc., or
Cancom, Shaw Satellite Services is wholly owned by
Shaw CommunicationsShaw 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.-...
.
On October 5, 2006, Shaw announced that CANCOM would be renamed Shaw Satellite Services, with CANCOM Broadcast becoming Shaw Broadcast Services, and CANCOM Tracking becoming Shaw Tracking, in 2007.
As Cancom, the service was originally owned by a consortium of several Canadian cable companies, but ownership changes eventually consolidated Shaw as the primary owner.
Shaw Satellite Services (French: Services de Radiodiffusion Shaw) is a
CanadianCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
company responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies via
satelliteIn the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavor. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
. Shaw also operates Shaw Direct, a Canadian
direct broadcast satelliteDirect broadcast satellite is a term used to refer to satellite television broadcasts intended for home reception, also referred to more broadly as direct-to-home signals...
service.
Previously known as
Canadian Satellite Communications Inc., or
Cancom, Shaw Satellite Services is wholly owned by
Shaw CommunicationsShaw 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.-...
.
On October 5, 2006, Shaw announced that CANCOM would be renamed Shaw Satellite Services, with CANCOM Broadcast becoming Shaw Broadcast Services, and CANCOM Tracking becoming Shaw Tracking, in 2007.
As Cancom, the service was originally owned by a consortium of several Canadian cable companies, but ownership changes eventually consolidated Shaw as the primary owner. The company was previously required by the CRTC to be operated independently of Shaw's cable holdings. However, in light of the name change, it is unclear if Shaw's satellite-based companies would remain independent from the cable division.
Canadian Satellite Communications Ltd. (CANCOM)
In 1980, the CRTC began a proceeding to expand the choice of television and radio signals available to Canadians who were then regarded as underserved, often with only CBC Television and CBC Radio available to them. Several companies filed proposals, and early in 1981, the CRTC licensed the proposal by Canadian Satellite Communications, a consortium that included Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien, a Quebec broadcast executive, and Rolf Hougen, a Whitehorse businessman whose interests included CKRW Radio and WHTV Cablevision of Whitehorse.
CANCOM began test broadcasts with three of its four signals on 15 July 1981, swapped one of the three in November, and went into full operation on 1 January 1982 with all four signals: independent stations
CITVCITV-TV is a television station in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Known on air as "Global Edmonton", the station is owned by Canwest, and is an owned-and-operated station of the Global Television Network...
EdmontonEdmonton is the capital of the Canadian province of Alberta. The city is located on the North Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province, an area with some of the most fertile farmland on the prairies...
,
CHCH-TVCHCH-TV, channel 11, is a television station in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with additional transmitters throughout Ontario, and the oldest private television station serving the Toronto area...
HamiltonHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, CTV affiliate BCTV
VancouverVancouver is a coastal city and major seaport located in the Lower Mainland of southwestern British Columbia, Canada. The city is bounded by English Bay, Burrard Inlet, the Fraser River, the city of Burnaby, and the University Endowment Lands. Vancouver is named after Captain George Vancouver, a...
, and a French-language channel known as TCTV but which largely represented the programming of
CFTM-TVCFTM-TV channel 10, is the flagship of the TVA television network, located in Montreal, Quebec.-History:It opened on February 19, 1961, a few weeks after CFCF-TV went on the air for the first time. It was owned by Joseph Alexandre DeSève and his company, Télé-Métropole...
MontrealMontreal is the second-largest city in Canada and the largest city in the province of Quebec. Originally called Ville-Marie , the city takes its present name from Mont-Royal, the triple-peaked hill located in the heart of the city, whose name was also initially given to the island on which the...
. Cable television companies were charged one dollar per signal per customer. The company also was licensed to carry the signals of nine radio stations, eight as originally proposed, plus CKRW of Whitehorse added during the hearings.
In 1982, CANCOM proposed adding four additional television stations and additional radio signals, originating in the United States, in order to bring the American "three-plus-one" package to all Canadians that the CRTC had previously accepted the principle of allowing to southern cable companies that picked up signals from nearby United States cities. The CRTC approved and on 1 September 1983, CANCOM began transmitting the four Detroit affiliates of the three major commercial networks and PBS: WJBK-TV,
WDIV-TVWDIV-TV, digital channel 45 , is an NBC-affiliated television station based in Detroit, Michigan, United States...
,
WXYZ-TVWXYZ-TV, Channel 7, is the ABC affiliated television station in Detroit. It is owned by The E.W. Scripps Company and is the media company's largest TV station. WXYZ-TV is among the highest-rated ABC stations in the United States. The station's operations and transmitter are located at Broadcast...
and
WTVSWTVS, branded as Detroit Public Television, is the PBS member station in Detroit, Michigan. Broadcasting since 1955, its vision statement is "educate, entertain and inspire — in partnership with our community." The viewer supported station produces many local programs including Get Up! Get Out, In...
. In later years, additional stations were picked up to offer a greater diversity of time zone feeds, including Seattle stations
KING-TVKING-TV, channel 48, is a television station in Seattle, Washington, USA. It is affiliated with the NBC network, and broadcasts on digital UHF channel 48. Its offices and broadcasting center are located just east of Seattle Center. The station's transmitter is located in the Queen Anne neighborhood...
and
KOMO-TVKOMO-TV is a television station in Seattle, Washington. It is an affiliate of ABC and broadcasts on digital channel 38. KOMO is the flagship station of Fisher Communications, and its studios are located in Fisher Plaza along with sister stations KOMO AM, KPLZ-FM, and KVI, directly across the street...
.
Shaw Broadcast
Shaw Broadcast (originally
CANCOM Broadcast) distributes both
specialtyA specialty channel is a television channel which consists of programming focused on a single type or targeted at a specific demographic....
cable channels and regular broadcast network affiliates via one of North America's largest full-service commercial signal distribution networks. It distributes affiliates of all the major Canadian commercial networks, along with several independent services.
The company also distributes a limited number of
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
network affiliates from markets such as
BostonBoston is the capital and largest city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is considered the economic and cultural center of the region and is sometimes regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England"...
,
RochesterRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and...
,
BuffaloBuffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, second only to New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River, Buffalo is the principal city of the Buffalo-Niagara Falls metropolitan area and the seat of Erie...
,
DetroitDetroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Wayne County. Detroit is a major port city on the Detroit River, in the Midwest region of the United States. Located north of Windsor, Ontario, Detroit is the only major U.S. city that looks south to Canada. It was founded...
, Minneapolis,
SpokaneSpokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, as well as the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...
and Seattle. Some Canadian cable companies use Shaw for these services where cost or technical issues prevent the use of a closer non-Shaw signal, even when the station is from a different
time zoneA time zone is a region of the earth that has uniform standard time, usually referred to as the local time. By convention, time zones compute their local time as an offset from UTC . Local time is UTC plus the current time zone offset for the considered location.-Introduction:Time zones are...
. (However, use of the Shaw feeds is not
required for these services; cable companies are free to use any signal provider whose distribution is technically feasible.)
As well, Shaw distributes a number of Canadian
radio stationRadio broadcasting is an audio broadcasting service, broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and a thus to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both...
s, and a few American stations, for cable FM and
digitalDigital cable is a generic term for any type of cable television distribution using digital video compression or distribution. The technology was originally developed by Motorola.-Background:...
distribution. In total, over 380 English, French and multilingual signals are offered via 49
AnikThe Anik satellites are geostationary communications satellites launched by Telesat Canada for television in Canada. In Inuktitut, Anik means "little brother".- The Satellites :- Anik A :...
F1 and F2
transponderIn telecommunication, the term transponder has the following meanings:...
s.
Shaw Tracking
Shaw Tracking (originally
CANCOM Tracking) provides commercial tracking via satellite. Specifically it provides tracking, two-way messaging and integrated transportation and logistics solutions to the Canadian trucking industry with over 31,000 units in use by over 500 companies. Of Canada's Top 25 trucking companies, Shaw claims that 23 use its services, and that it has over 85% of the mobile communications market place for long-haul trucks.