Canadian cableco Shaw Communications has announced consolidated results for its fiscal first quarter ended 30 November 2014, in which consolidated revenue of CAD1.39 billion (USD1.16 billion) – including satellite TV business – was up 2% over the comparable period of the previous year. Total operating income before amortisation of CAD606 million in the three-month period was down from CAD608 million year-on-year, while the firm posted net income of CAD227 million in September-November 2014, down from CAD245 million in the year-ago report. Cable TV customers stood at 1,942,038 at end-November 2014 (down by 15,591 during the quarter) while cable telephony lines in service reached 1,374,735 (down by 599), but cable broadband internet subscribers grew by 14,048 in three months to 1,944,449.
During the quarter under review, Shaw expanded its Wi-Fi hotspots to 55,000, and in November launched ‘shomi’, a subscription over-the-top (OTT) video-on-demand (VoD) service featuring popular movies and TV shows (also available on set-top boxes). On 2 September Shaw closed the acquisition of ViaWest, one of the largest privately-owned data centre infrastructure, cloud technology and managed IT solutions providers in North America.