Shaw Communications Inc. held their annual meeting yesterday in Calgary, Alberta, and CEO Brad Shaw confirmed a price increase is coming for residential internet and television.
According to The Canadian Press, “details of the cable, internet and wireless company’s price increases haven’t been decided but they will most likely take effect in April,” as per details provided by Shaw to reporters.
The move looks to match western Canadian rival Telus, which is set to increase prices on February 25, 2019.
Why the price hike? Shaw explains it’s getting more expensive for acquire sports rights for the company, despite a dip in television subscribers, in what appears to be a trend in the industry.
“It’s a real concern,” Shaw explained, adding, “How are Canadian companies even going to be able to compete?”
Shaw said there is no help from its partly-owned company Corus Entertainment, which has its “fight on its hands”, seeing pressure from services such as Netflix.
Freedom Mobile, the wireless division of Shaw, helped the latter beat analyst estimates for their first-quarter earnings. The wireless segment of the company added 86,000 postpaid wireless subscribers and saw wireless revenue surge 60% in the quarter, year-on-year, to $273 million.
Speaking about Shaw’s voluntary employee buyout program from last year, which saw 25% of its workforce slashed, the CEO said it was “absolutely the right move”, but also said the loss of 3,000 employees was “a little bit emotional,” due to “being a family company with the culture we have.”
