Shaw Direct is a

direct broadcast satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

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 K_u band from two

communications satellite A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth ...

s: Anik G1 at 107.3°W, and Anik F2 at 111.1°W. Anik F1R, which had been in service for 15 years, reached its end of life in the latter part of 2020, when the services on this satellite were migrated between the remaining two. These satellites are owned by

Telesat Canada Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa. History Telesat began as Telesat Canada, a Canadian Crown corporation created by an Act of Parl ...

and otherwise are used primarily to distribute programming to various Canadian cable TV companies. The company was formerly known as Star Choice until April 15, 2009. A full list of channels carried by these two satellites is available from satellite-related sites such as Lyngsat. The newer of the two satellites, Anik G1, was launched on April 15, 2013, and then later reached orbit on May 29, 2013. Shaw Direct was founded in

Lincoln, New Brunswick Lincoln (2011 pop.: 6,458) is a Canadian suburban community in Sunbury County, New Brunswick. Geography Located on the west bank of the Saint John River between Fredericton and Oromocto, Lincoln was one of the original United Empire Loyalis ...

, but is now based in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, makin ...

. Its broadcast centre is in Mississauga, Ontario, and has

call centres A call centre ( Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American spelling; see spelling differences) is a managed capability that can be centralised or remote that is used for receiving or transmitting a large volume of enquiries by telephone. ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

and

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

Technical information

The system requires an elliptical antenna of at least 45x60cm in size with a special LNB pair built as one unit to accommodate the narrow 3.8° spacing between satellites; the receiver uses the

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent public companies, Motorol ...

-proprietary Digicipher II system which has so far been virtually free of the problems with

pirate decryption Pirate decryption is the decryption, or decoding, of pay TV or pay radio signals without permission from the original broadcaster. The term "pirate" is used in the sense of copyright infringement. The MPAA and other groups which lobby in favour ...

that have plagued other providers such as rival

Bell Satellite TV Bell Satellite TV (french: Bell Télé; formerly known as Bell ExpressVu, Dish Network Canada and ExpressVu Dish Network and not to be confused with Bell's IPTV Fibe TV service) is the division of BCE Inc. that provides satellite television ser ...

. The standard 18" DBS antennas used by other providers are not compatible with this system as the signals differ in both frequency and polarization. Shaw Direct is relayed via FSS satellites, Anik G1 and F2.

Services and pricing

Shaw Direct currently features over 500 channels including all major Canadian and American networks, popular specialty services, PPV, sports packages and over 350 HD channels. Key services include: * Multiple feeds from various affiliate stations of U.S. networks, including ABC,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, Fox,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

and

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

; these feeds come from

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

(Fox excluded since 2009),

Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...

(Fox only),

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the Ca ...

(PBS only since 2019), and Buffalo (PBS only since 2009). * Crave and Super Channel (English-language premium movie services) * Super Écran (French-language premium movie service) *

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 guid ...

movies and events in Standard and High Definition from

Shaw PPV Shaw PPV is a Canadian English and French language pay-per-view service owned by Shaw Pay-Per-View Limited, a division of Shaw Communications. Shaw PPV is carried by Shaw Direct, Shaw Cable, and some other providers, mainly (but not exclusively) i ...

NBA League Pass NBA League Pass is the National Basketball Association's direct-to-consumer subscription-based product that gives basketball fans access to NBA games, live and on-demand, for the entire NBA season. League Pass is available to viewers in the Un ...

NFL Sunday Ticket NFL Sunday Ticket is an out-of-market sports package that broadcasts National Football League (NFL) regular season games unavailable on local affiliates. It carries all regional Sunday afternoon games produced by Fox and CBS. The ideal custome ...

* NHL Centre Ice * Sportsnet World (Premium sports service airing soccer and rugby) * Exxxtasy TV, Penthouse TV,

Playboy TV Playboy TV (originally The Playboy Channel) is a pay television channel based in the United States. History The channel first launched on December 9, 1980, as Escapade by Rainbow Programing Services (a joint-venture of four cable companies, ...

and Red Hot TV (Adult channels) * 42 commercial-free digital music channels provided by

Stingray Music Stingray Music is a Canada-based international multi-platform audio service that broadcasts continuous streaming music and other forms of audio on multiple channel feeds. The service is owned by Stingray Digital. While a song is playing on the ...

* 49 Canadian commercial radio stations The monthly packages range from $30 for the basic service, up to $107.99 for specialty and movie channels. Individual premium and specialty channels can also be purchased. The receivers range from $99 for a basic system to $399 for a high-definition

personal video recorder A digital video recorder (DVR) is an electronic device that records video in a digital format to a disk drive, USB flash drive, SD memory card, SSD or other local or networked mass storage device. The term includes set-top boxes with direct to d ...

. In addition, Shaw Direct provides specialty services * 2nd Home: Allows for programming at a secondary location * Seasonal Break: Allows you to temporarily suspend programming anywhere from 14 days and up to 180 days, with an automatic reconnect date * Refer-A-Friend: When referring new customers to the service, you are eligible to receive up to a month of free programming Starting in 2011, Shaw Direct offered a free satellite dish, receiver, installation and a handful of SD channels to Canadians who lost their over-the-air (OTA) access to television as a result of Canada's digital television transition. The offer was part of Shaw's little known Local Television Satellite Solution (LTSS) program approved by the CRTC as part of Shaw's purchase of Canwest Global in 2010. The period to apply to the program ended August 31, 2014, three months earlier than the original extended application deadline of November 30, 2014. On April 12, 2019, the CRTC opened a public call for comments regarding Shaw Direct's licence renewal request that included its plan to end the LTSS as of August 31, 2019. According to Shaw Direct, more than 31,500 Canadian households subscribed to the no-fee LTSS. While Shaw Direct did end up offering the LTSS beyond August 31, 2019, according to Shaw Direct customer service all remaining LTSS subscribers had been disconnected as of December 20, 2019.

References

External links

Shaw Direct
{{CATV USA Cable and DBS companies of Canada Direct broadcast satellite services Television channels and stations established in 1996 Companies based in Calgary Shaw Communications

Technical information

Services and pricing

See also

References

External links