Shaw Broadcast Services - Canadian Satellite Communications Ltd. (CANCOM)

Canadian Satellite Communications Ltd. (CANCOM)

In 1980, the CRTC began a proceeding to expand the choice of television and radio signals available to Canadians who were then regarded as underserved, often with only CBC Television and CBC Radio available to them. Several companies filed proposals, and early in 1981, the CRTC licensed the proposal by Canadian Satellite Communications Inc, a consortium of Canadian broadcasting companies including Allarcom of Edmonton, WIC Western International Communications of Vancouver, Maclean Hunter of Toronto, Selkirk Broadcasting of Toronto, Telemedia of Montreal, Philippe de Gaspe Beaubien, a Quebec broadcast executive, and Rolf Hougen, a businessman whose interests included CKRW Radio and WHTV Cablevision of Whitehorse.

CANCOM began test broadcasts with three (CITV, CHCH, BCTV) of its four signals on 15 July 1981, swapped one of the three in November (CHCH for TCTV), and went into full operation on 1 January 1982 with all four signals: independent stations CITV Edmonton, CHCH-TV Hamilton, CTV affiliate BCTV Vancouver, and a French-language channel known as TCTV but which largely represented the programming of CFTM-TV Montreal. Initially, Cancom charged cable television companies anywhere from fifteen cents to sixty-five cents per TV channel per subscriber (channel subs) depending on the number of Cancom channels carried on the cable system and the number of subscribers receiving the channels. The company also was licensed to carry the signals of nine radio stations, eight as originally proposed, plus CKRW of Whitehorse added during the hearings.

In 1982, CANCOM proposed adding four additional television stations and additional radio signals, originating in the United States, in order to bring the American "three-plus-one" package to all Canadians that the CRTC had previously accepted the principle of allowing to southern cable companies that picked up signals from nearby United States cities. The CRTC approved and on 1 September 1983, CANCOM began transmitting the four Detroit affiliates of the three major commercial networks and PBS: WJBK-TV, WDIV-TV, WXYZ-TV and WTVS. Cancom was a world leader with its pioneering technical expertise, (including the first commercial and consumer applications of digital encryption for satellite TV distribution) and the first carrier to offer consumers direct broadcast satellite (DBS) services.

Cancom's services proved popular in the US as well. In 1985, senior vice president Steven D. Comrie struck a controversial deal with US cable operators to deliver Cancom's Detroit signals to remote villages and communities across Alaska. Despite objections from various US copyright holders, Comrie and a group of Alaska cable operators led by Gordon Rock of Seattle, WA, won federal approval for state-wide distribution of Cancom's Detroit channels. However, Cancom's foray into the US was stalled when Canadian trade officials were reportedly warned by US authorities that no such exemption would be considered for the lower 48 states. Comrie later left Cancom to join Rock and US cellular industry pioneer, Craig McCaw to co-found Netlink USA, and the Kirkland WA-based company launched its DBS lineup of Denver's ABC, CBS, NBC affiliates and PBS and independents at the Western Cable Show in Anaheim CA in December 1986. In later years, Netlink was sold to the largest US cable operator at the time TCI, and Cancom picked up additional stations including Seattle's KING and KOMO to offer a greater diversity of time zone feeds for its primary Canadian market.