CUC Broadcasting was a Canadian media company, active from 1968 to 1995. Active primarily as a

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

distributor, the company also had some holdings in broadcast media and publishing. The company was founded in 1968 by chairman Geoffrey Conway, with shareholders including Jerry Grafstein, Michael Koerner and Ken Lefolii.

Holdings

The company's Trillium Cable division served several markets in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, including Scarborough,

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

Barrie Barrie is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada, about north of Toronto. The city is within Simcoe County and located along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, the western arm of Lake Simcoe. Although physically in Simcoe County, Barrie is politicall ...

, Pickering, Chatham and Leamington,"Cable takeover kills 251 jobs New owner axes Trillium staffers". ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

'', June 15, 1995. and was also a minority investor in other smaller cable companies, including

Northern Cable Northern Cable was a Canadian cable television provider, which operated from 1975 to 1998. The company, based in Sudbury, Ontario, served most of the Northeastern Ontario region. Although CUC Broadcasting was the largest single shareholder,"Strugg ...

Northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

,"Struggle under way to control CUC Broadcasting, sources say". ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', March 2, 1989. UMG Cable in

Smiths Falls Smiths Falls is a town in Eastern Ontario, Canada, southwest of Ottawa. As of the 2021 census it has a population of 9,254. It is in the Census division for Lanark County, but is separated from the county. The Rideau Canal waterway passes thr ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Brockville Brockville, formerly Elizabethtown, is a city in Eastern Ontario, Canada, in the Thousand Islands region. Although it is the seat of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville, it is politically independent of the county. It is included with Le ...

Cobourg Cobourg ( ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in Southern Ontario east of Toronto and east of Oshawa. It is the largest town in and seat of Northumberland County. Its nearest neighbour is Port Hope, to the west. It ...

and Port Hope, and several local systems in

The Midlands The Midlands (also referred to as Central England) are a part of England that broadly correspond to the Kingdom of Mercia of the Early Middle Ages, bordered by Wales, Northern England and Southern England. The Midlands were important in the In ...

region of

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

."CUC closer to lining up partner Broadcaster negotiating with Telus for cable-TV venture in Britain". ''

'', September 23, 1992. CUC's broadcasting holdings included radio stations

CKLW CKLW (800 AM) is a commercial radio station in Windsor, Ontario, serving Southwestern Ontario and Metro Detroit. CKLW has a news/ talk format. It features local hosts in morning and afternoon drive times, with syndicated Canadian hosts ...

and CKEZ in

,"Radio rules waived for Windsor". ''

'', January 30, 1993. and a 25 per cent founding stake in YTV,"Rivals eye cable empire after founder's death". ''

'', April 2, 1988. which had increased to 34 per cent by the company's dissolution in 1995. Through its share in Northern Cable, it also held a stake in that company's radio and television subsidiary

Mid-Canada Communications Mid-Canada Communications was a Canadian media company, which operated from 1980 to 1990. The company, a division of Northern Cable, had television and radio holdings in Northeastern Ontario. MCTV Mid-Canada Television, or MCTV, was created in 1 ...

until its share of that company was bought out by local shareholder Norman Bradley in 1989."Firm that owns CHRO sold; Deal for Northern Cable may halt bid for Ottawa licence". ''

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as ''The Bytown Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the ''Citizen'' in 1851. The news ...

'', May 27, 1989. In addition, the company held a significant minority stake in the magazine ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eatin ...

''.

Acquisition

Conway's death in 1988 made the company a strong takeover target, and by 1989 an active struggle for the controlling share of the company was under way. Control was ultimately maintained by Julia Conway, Geoffrey's widow. CUC sold its radio stations in Windsor to

CHUM Limited CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in 1954. CHU ...

in 1993. The deal was approved 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 ...

, and formally established the commission's current practice of granting the Windsor market a special exemption from its normal

concentration of media ownership Concentration of media ownership (also known as media consolidation or media convergence) is a process whereby progressively fewer individuals or organizations control increasing shares of the mass media. Contemporary research demonstrates in ...

rules because the city's proximity to the

Metro Detroit The Detroit metropolitan area, often referred to as Metro Detroit, is a major metropolitan area in the U.S. State of Michigan, consisting of the city of Detroit and its surrounding area. There are varied definitions of the area, including the ...

market in the United States was threatening the financial viability of Windsor's radio and television services. CUC was acquired by

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 ...

in the 1990s, for a purchase price of $645 million."Shaw to cut CUC by 251 jobs Will reduce new unit's work force by almost half over next 4 months". ''

'', June 15, 1995. First announced in April 1994, the deal was reached as part of a bidding war which also saw a competing offer from

Cogeco Cogeco Inc. is a Canadian telecommunications and media company. Its corporate offices are located at 1 Place Ville-Marie in Montreal, Quebec. The company is structured into three strategic business units (SBU); Cogeco Connexion, Breezelin ...

. The purchase received CRTC approval in February 1995. The merger of CUC's 420,000 subscribers with Shaw's, along with an additional 102,000 subscribers added from Shaw's simultaneous purchase of Classicomm, made Shaw the second largest cable company in Canada. Shortly after the takeover was approved, Shaw cut 251 jobs from Trillium in the engineering, customer service and finance departments, due to operational redundancies with Shaw's existing staff. Following an exchange transaction between Shaw and

Rogers Cable Rogers Cable Inc. is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, primarily in Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador. R ...

in 2001, most of Trillium's and UMG's former markets are now served by Rogers, with some areas, such as Windsor, Chatham and Leamington, now served by Cogeco Cable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuc Broadcasting Defunct cable and DBS companies of Canada Radio broadcasting companies of Canada Defunct broadcasting companies of Canada 1968 establishments in Ontario Mass media companies established in 1968 1995 disestablishments in Ontario Mass media companies disestablished in 1995 Shaw Communications 1995 mergers and acquisitions