type division industry tv service provider headquarters mississauga ontario canada area served canada parent shaw communications website http www.shawbroadcast.ca shaw broadcast services french services de radiodiffusion shaw is the division of canadian telecommunications company shaw communications that is responsible for providing and managing the distribution of television channels to cable companies via satellite . shaw communications also operates shaw direct a canadian direct broadcast satellite service . it was known as canadian satellite communications cancom prior to its acquisition by shaw . 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 . 1 as cancom the service was originally owned by a consortium of several canadian broadcasting 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 . contents 1 canadian satellite communications ltd. cancom 2 shaw broadcast 3 shaw tracking 4 references 5 external links canadian satellite communications ltd. cancom edit 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 inc a consortium of canadian broadcasting companies including allarcom of edmonton wic western international communications of vancouver maclean hunter of toronto selkirk broadcasting of toronto telemedia of montreal philippe de gaspe beaubien a quebec broadcast executive and rolf hougen a businessman whose interests included ckrw radio and whtv cablevision of whitehorse . cancom began test broadcasts with three citv chch bctv of its four signals on 15 july 1981 swapped one of the three in november chch for tctv and went into full operation on 1 january 1982 with all four signals independent stations citv edmonton chch tv hamilton ctv affiliate bctv vancouver and a french language channel known as tctv but which largely represented the programming of cftm tv montreal . initially cancom charged cable television companies anywhere from fifteen cents to sixty five cents per tv channel per subscriber channel subs depending on the number of cancom channels carried on the cable system and the number of subscribers receiving the channels . 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 tv wxyz tv and wtvs . cancom was a world leader with its pioneering technical expertise including the first commercial and consumer applications of digital encryption for satellite tv distribution and the first carrier to offer consumers direct broadcast satellite dbs services . cancom s services proved popular in the us as well . in 1985 senior vice president steven d. comrie struck a controversial deal with us cable operators to deliver cancom s detroit signals to remote villages and communities across alaska . despite objections from various us copyright holders comrie and a group of alaska cable operators led by gordon rock of seattle wa won federal approval for statewide distribution of cancom s detroit channels . however cancom s foray into the us was stalled when canadian trade officials were reportedly warned by us authorities that no such exemption would be considered for the lower 48 states . comrie later left cancom to join rock and us cellular industry pioneer craig mccaw to co found netlink usa and the kirkland wa based company launched its dbs lineup of denver s abc cbs nbc affiliates and pbs and independents at the western cable show in anaheim ca in december 1986 . in later years netlink was sold to the largest us cable operator at the time tci and cancom picked up additional stations including seattle s king and komo to offer a greater diversity of time zone feeds for its primary canadian market . shaw broadcast edit shaw broadcast originally cancom broadcast distributes both specialty 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 american network affiliates from markets such as boston rochester buffalo detroit minneapolis spokane 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 zone . 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 stations and a few american stations for cable fm and digital distribution . in total over 380 english french and multilingual signals are offered via 49 anik f1 and f2 transponders . shaw tracking edit 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 . references edit 1 external links edit official site v t e shaw communications corporate directors jim dinning ron joyce charles keating don mazankowski jim shaw jr shaw assets cjbn tv kenora corus entertainment 37 % 1 shaw broadcast services shaw direct shomi3 shaw multicultural channel2 shaw ppv shaw tv2 wind mobile defunct historical brands and predecessors moffat communications msnbc canada videon cablesystems western international communications shaw media 1non voting interest ; additionally the voting shares of both shaw and corus are controlled by the shaw family . 2community channels owned by shaw cablesystems . 3joint venture with rogers communications . many of the assets listed above are only partially owned by shaw . refer to full asset list for detailed information . retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title shaw broadcast services & oldid 720215578 categories cable and dbs companies of canadacompanies based in mississauga navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 14 may 2016 at 12 22 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered 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