Shaw PPV was a

Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...

English and

French language French ( or ) is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European family. Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. French evolved from Northern Old Gallo-R ...

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 ...

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

Shaw Communications Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

. Shaw PPV was carried by

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

Shaw Cable Shaw Communications Inc. was a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian telecommunication, telecommunications company which provided telephone, Internet, television, and mobile services. The company was founded in 1966 as Capital Cable Televisio ...

, and some other providers, mainly (but not exclusively) in Western Canada. As the service was 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), was issued a two-year experimental licence by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC; ) is a public organization in Canada tasked with the mandate as a regulatory agency tribunal for various electronic communications, covering broadcasting and telecommunic ...

(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, 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, 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 (now called 201 Portage). It held radio, ...

, and

Corus Entertainment Corus Entertainment Inc. (often simply known as Corus) is a Canadian mass media and television production company. The company was founded in 1987 as Shaw Radio Ltd. as a subsidiary of Shaw Communications and was spun-off from Shaw in 1999. It h ...

. 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 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