Shaw allowed to combine cable and satellite units

Canadian triple-play TV, broadband and telephony operator Shaw Communications has been given permission to combine its cable-based division (Shaw Cable) with its direct-to-home (DTH) satellite TV service (Shaw Direct) by the country’s telecoms and broadcasting regulator. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) agreed with Shaw’s position that structural separation was no longer necessary because the country’s broadcasting distribution market is now ‘competitive and sustainable’; Shaw had protested that the previous requirements discriminated against it because the CRTC did not impose similar rules upon any of its competitors. The rules, which restricted Shaw from offering certain service bundles, were enforced at a time when DTH distributors were new in the market and Shaw was the only player owning terrestrial broadcast distributors, DTH operations and satellite relay distribution undertakings.