Canada: Shaw reaches One-Million HD Subs


Shaw Communications announced in early April it has achieved the one-million subscriber mark in its quest to expand HD services from coast to coast in Canada. Shaw said its new totals among its cable and DBS subs gives the former about two-thirds of the million-home mark (650,000) with the remaining HD services (350,000) coming from its satellite households.

Shaw said it currently has roughly 2.3 million cable subscribers and more than 900,000 satellite television customers. Therefore, its HD tier penetration among its DBS subs is approximately 38 percent — compared to 28 percent for cable customers.

That lower 10 percent for the larger cable pool, as a whole, means about 31% of Shaw customers now subscribe to some form of HD programming.