Shaw 2010 Annual Report Download - page 12

to experience the convenience of watching their favorite movies and television shows when and
where they want to. The home entertainment experience continues to improve with on-demand and
personalization of products and services and the Company strives to ensure that its broadband
network and interactive capabilities are being used to their full potential. Shaw continues to invest
in technology initiatives to recapture bandwidth and optimize its network, including increasing the
number of nodes on the network and using advanced encoding and digital compression
technologies such as MPEG4.
The Company offers customers attractively priced combinations of its analog video, digital video,
Internet and Digital Phone services. The benefits of bundling to customers include the convenience
of “one-stop shopping” and value pricing. The benefits to Shaw include retention of existing
customers (churn reduction); attraction of new customers; incremental penetration as customers
upgrade to additional services offered in a bundle; and operational efficiencies through centralized
billing and customer care.
Since 1996 Shaw has provided Internet access services to residential and small business
subscribers in its cable television systems through its technologically advanced broadband
network. In the majority of its Internet serving areas, the Company currently offers five levels of
Internet service: High-Speed Lite, High-Speed, High-Speed Xtreme, High Speed Warp and High
Speed Nitro. During 2009 the Company implemented speed increases of 50% and also launched a
100 Mbps service using Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) 3.0 technology.
The 100 Mbps service, High Speed Nitro, is now available in over 85% of the Corporation’s
footprint. The Company currently offers high-speed Internet service with downstream speeds from
512 Kbps to 25 Mbps, or in those areas launched with DOCSIS 3.0 to 100 Mbps, depending on the
service selected. As at August 31, 2010 there were approximately 1,820,000 subscribers
(connected and scheduled installations) to Shaw’s Internet access services.
During 2010 Shaw introduced the Shaw Wireless Gateway, a modem and router in one, providing a
secure, fast WiFi connection to the Internet. The Shaw Wireless Gateway allows subscribers to
connect to the Internet from almost anywhere in the house, without all the cables.
Late in 2010 Shaw commenced trials of a 1 Gigabit Internet service, with speeds 10x faster than
High Speed Nitro. The trial utilizes Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) and will be able to support new,
cutting-edge Internet applications that will require faster download speeds.
In 2005 Shaw entered the “triple play” market of voice, video and data services with the launch of
Shaw Digital Phone, a reliable, fully featured and affordable residential telephone service. Since
then, the Company has continued to expand its Digital Phone footprint and now offers the service to
95% of homes passed. As at August 31, 2010 it had approximately 1,100,000 Digital Phone lines
(primary and secondary lines on billing plus pending installs).
Since the initial launch of Digital Phone, Shaw has expanded the product offerings and now offers
three tiers of residential service appealing to a wide range of customers. In the latter part of 2007, it
also started to offer commercial voice services, including a variety of Shaw for Business products for
the home based or smaller business and a Primary Rate Interface (“PRI”) service for the medium to
larger business.
Shaw has a customer-centric strategy designed to deliver high-quality customer service, simplicity
and value to its customers through various bundled service offerings for its video, Internet and
Digital Phone products. Delivering value to customers creates value for Shaw’s stakeholders
through incremental penetration, operational efficiencies and reduced churn.
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Shaw Communications Inc.
MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
August 31, 2010