CEO Address to the Annual General Meeting Brad Shaw, CEO, Shaw Communications, Inc. January 11, 2018, 11 a.m. MT Calgary, Alberta

Transcription

1 CEO Address to the Annual General Meeting Brad Shaw, CEO, Shaw Communications, Inc. January 11, 2018, 11 a.m. MT Calgary, Alberta Please check against delivery 1

2 Good morning everyone. Thank you for being here and sharing your time with us. The video that we ve just seen shows the tremendous steps we have taken as a company over the past 12 months. We set out to change the trajectory of our Consumer subscriber performance. Our people have delivered a year-over-year turnaround in overall subscriber trends, including six consecutive quarters of robust net gains in internet subscribers. To enable this performance, we executed our strategic initiatives and continued to optimize our mix of core assets selling ViaWest and acquiring 700 and 2500 megahertz spectrum licences in our core markets to provide a richer customer experience. We are still in the early stages of our journey and I am excited with the progress we are making. This morning, I am pleased to provide for you an overview of the work we are doing and the actions we are taking to make a greater difference in the lives of our customers as they demand more and better from us. We are motivated by our customers. Simply put, they guide our actions and are at the centre of every decision we make. Their changing preferences have already forced dramatic changes in our industry (and most others), and they will most certainly continue to do so. For our customers, connections are everything. They link people and ideas around the world. They build and keep bonds strong. They make a big world small and a small town big. At Shaw, we believe powering connections is our mission Powering connections between people, between businesses and between communities. We are building a company that will deliver value and service in the future the way our customers want and need. Customers want their services from Shaw to be just like everything else in their life delivered quickly, reliably, and on their terms. This is true in all aspects of our business. For years, legacy cable companies including ours had struggled with the idea that TV was no longer confined to your living room. We were threatened by the idea of people enjoying the content they love, when they want it, how they want it and where they want it. To meet this challenge, we understood that we could no longer afford to think the way we used to. Our customers drove us to break the model of how we delivered television to them. 2

3 So in early 2016 we launched our premiere on-the-go video product FreeRange TV. And in 2017 (just a year ago this week) we revolutionized the Canadian TV landscape with a breakthrough video platform, Shaw Bluesky TV. Television for our customers has not been the same since. This isn t just a minor shift; It s a revolution in the way we approach our business. And, this is just the beginning. Next to our people, our converged network is our most powerful asset, and it will drive our future growth, relevance and competitiveness. As our homes, vehicles, offices and every other aspect of our lives become more and more connected, we believe Shaw will be the gateway for our customers to the connected life. Our customers can take advantage of our top-tier speeds and ultra-fast network more easily than ever. Today, our WideOpen Internet 150 plan is available with unlimited data so customers can have peace of mind in knowing they can stream, download and browse without any penalty for going over monthly data limits. We believe Canadians should not have limitations on how much they enjoy life online. With Shaw, nothing will hold people back from experiencing all the richness that life online has to offer. Canadians have said for years they want a wireless provider to deliver fair pricing, reasonable data packages and solid customer service at an affordable cost. We heard them, and in these past few weeks, you heard them too. When we launched our Freedom Mobile Big Gig wireless plans in late October, Canadians took notice. And in the weeks before the holiday break when we started selling the iphone at no money down with a data plan that was unprecedented for its high abundance and its low price the competition noticed. We were offering Canadians a data plan priced unlike anything they had ever seen. Media said we started a price war. We say we were paying attention to what Canadians wanted. And that s what true competition does. Suddenly, those people locked into contracts with our competitors started demanding better. And for the first time, our competitors were forced to try and compete, rather than simply dictating the way things were going to be. 3

4 Canadians need and deserve the most valuable, most affordable and most innovative services possible, and our economic future depends on the availability of strong alternatives for worldclass mobile connectivity over the long term. Today, more than 1.2 million Canadians have chosen Freedom Mobile as their wireless carrier. We have successfully begun deploying Canada s newest LTE network in major metropolitan centres of Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa giving the large majority of Freedom Mobile customers faster data speeds, smoother streaming and faster downloading. It s worth noting that today, our wireless plans reflect an abundance of data, and remain highly affordable with the same terms as when we launched them. Today is a celebration of our customers and our work underway to continue to deliver the connected life they want and need. Today, more people than ever across Canada are choosing Shaw to satisfy their connectivity needs. When we look at the possibilities in front of us, it s clear there is great opportunity and potential. It s equally clear that if we are to embrace the challenges posed by customers and technology, we must recognize that we need to approach our business very differently than before. For years, we have done well by bringing about incremental and targeted change in our operations, but to thrive in the future, our pace and scale of change must be more impactful. As I close my comments, I want to reiterate how honoured I am to be standing in front of you as CEO. Annual meetings have always been a chance to reconnect with so many friends and shareholders, to celebrate our successes, and to talk about the challenges still before us. But today is a bittersweet occasion, as we have an empty chair with the loss of our Vice Chairman, our former CEO, our trusted advisor, and my dear brother, Jim. Jim laid down the foundation that has allowed us to be so successful today. Very simply, Jim understood the power and potential of the internet for our customers. He made sure we owned and controlled the infrastructure and acquired so many of the assets that have been crucially important in helping Shaw become a connectivity company. We simply wouldn t be the company that we are today, without the foresight, the pure and simple smarts, and guts that Jim brought to the table. Jim was a larger than life character. And he leaves a larger than average hole here with his passing. But he lived a truly full and happy life Jim was well loved, and he always will be, in our hearts. We are ready to build the future of our company on a very solid platform. We know that the pace of change in our industry is unrelenting. Disruption is everywhere. What worked yesterday is firmly rooted in history, and focusing on our legacy business will not win the day. 4

5 As I hope you heard today, Shaw is continuing to look forward, ready to adapt, respond and stay ahead of the desires of our customers in an ever-changing industry. It s a job that will take creativity, ingenuity, discipline and decisiveness. Our people are up to the task. We have always faced change and challenge, and I am excited for what we will do together. We are grateful to every member of our team for making Shaw the place where the best people choose to work, and for contributing to our ongoing success by caring more, connecting more, and delivering unparalleled customer experiences across the country. I want to take a moment to personally thank my entire family for their love, their counsel, and their support, especially through what has been such a sad time for all of us in recent days. I want to thank the members of our board for their insight, and voice my appreciation to the best management team in the business for their commitment and willingness to contribute to our continued success. And finally, I want to thank our shareholders for their confidence and support in our plans to create value in the future. Thank you for your time, and for your support. 5