Shaw PPV is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...

and

French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in N ...

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program g ...

service owned by Shaw Pay-Per-View Limited, a division of

Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company which provides telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and Br ...

. Shaw PPV is carried by

Shaw Direct Shaw Direct is a direct broadcast satellite television distributor in Canada and a subsidiary of the telecommunications company Shaw Communications. As of 2010, Shaw Direct had over 900,000 subscribers. It broadcasts on Ku band from two commu ...

Shaw Cable Shaw Communications Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications company which provides telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. Headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, Shaw provides home telecommunications services primarily in Alberta and Br ...

, and some other providers, mainly (but not exclusively) in Western Canada. As the service is carried by a number of cable operators unaffiliated with Shaw, the service uses generic "PPV" branding and avoids references to its ownership on the service itself; however some print and Web advertising for PPV programming on Shaw's cable and satellite services does use the name "Shaw Pay Per View". The French-language channels use the brand TALC (''télé à la carte'', or "TV by order").

History

In February 1990, Allarcom Pay Television Limited, a subsidiary of

Western International Communications WIC Western International Communications Ltd. (or WIC) was a Canadian media company that operated from 1982 to 2000, with operations including broadcast and specialty television, radio, and satellite distribution via a majority interest in Can ...

(WIC), was issued a two-year experimental licence by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; french: Conseil de la radiodiffusion et des télécommunications canadiennes, links=) is a public organization in Canada with mandate as a regulatory agency for broadcast ...

(CRTC) for a pay-per-view (PPV) service serving Regina,

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

, and

Yorkton, Saskatchewan Yorkton is a city located in south-eastern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about 450 kilometres north-west of Winnipeg and 300 kilometres south-east of Saskatoon and is the sixth largest city in the province. As of 2017 the census population of ...

, under the provisional name "Superchannel Main Event". The service was launched later in 1990 under the name Home Theatre. At that time, PPV customers were required to also be subscribers to Allarcom's regional pay TV service, Superchannel (later rebranded as Movie Central). In January 1992, Allarcom received CRTC approval for a regional general interest PPV licence serving British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon, and the Northwest Territories, replacing the expiring experimental licence; as part of the approval, the CRTC mandated that customers could no longer be required to also subscribe to Superchannel. The service later operated under the Viewers Choice name, licensing the name and sharing the same satellite feeds as the similar PPV service operating in Eastern Canada,

Viewers Choice Viewers Choice was a Canadian English language pay-per-view (PPV) and near video on demand service. It was owned by Viewers Choice Canada Inc., which at the time of its closure was majority-owned and managed by Bell Media, with minority partne ...

, which had launched in late 1991. In late 1999, plans were announced to sell the service's parent company, WIC, and its various assets in parts to

CanWest Global Canwest Global Communications Corporation, which operated under the corporate name Canwest, was a major Canadian media conglomerate based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with its head offices at Canwest Place. It held radio, television broadcasti ...

, and

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. is a Canadian mass media company. Formed in 1999 as a spin-off from Shaw Communications, it has prominent holdings in the radio, publishing, and television industries. It is headquartered at Corus Quay in Toronto, Ont ...

. WIC's Viewers Choice service, and most of the company's other specialty and pay television services, were sold to Corus. In July 2000, the CRTC approved the transfer of ownership to Corus. Soon after the Corus took ownership of the service, in March 2001, Corus announced that it would sell the service to Shaw Communications for $35 million. In December 2001, the CRTC approved the change in ownership. On March 30, 2006, the CRTC amended the service's licence, allowing it to be distributed nationally, and to carry French-language programming for the first time. This took effect on December 27, 2007, when Shaw Direct dropped the Viewers Choice-branded feeds in favour of feeds with generic "PPV" branding. At about the same time, Shaw dropped

Canal Indigo Canal Indigo is a Canadian English and French language pay-per-view and Near Video on Demand provider owned by Vidéotron. The service was launched on August 26, 1996. Channels and content Canal Indigo PPV service consists of 11 standard definit ...

in favour of Shaw PPV's new French-language "TALC"-branded feeds.

References

External links

Shaw Cable PPV page

Shaw Direct PPV page
{{Canadian premium television services (PPV) Pay-per-view television networks in Canada Shaw Communications Former Corus Entertainment networks