2011/12 Season Wraps with Shaw Media Continuing to Show Impressive Growth

Global Increases Its Presence in the Top 20

Only Broadcaster to See Audience Growth Across Specialty Landscape

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TORONTO, May 28, 2012 /CNW/ - With the 2011/12 season coming to an end, Shaw Media announced today that its conventional and specialty channels continued to experience substantial growth. This exceptionally strong position provides the perfect springboard for the 2012/13 season - to be announced this Wednesday as part of Shaw Media's Fall Launch event.

"We're thrilled by the growth we've seen over the past year across our portfolio," said Barbara Williams, Senior Vice-President, Content, Shaw Media. "Our shows are only getting bigger as audiences consume them across all platforms and share their enthusiasm via social media."

Global 2011/12 Highlights

Hit dramas and comedies continue to shine throughout primetime on Global. Perennial favourites Survivor and Glee delivered Top 10 performances as did the bittersweet final season of House. Plus Bones, NCIS and Hawaii Five-0 were all firmly established in the Top 20 and Global's Sunday night animation block also continued as a proven destination for the coveted male 18-34 demo.

Hawaii Five-0, with its explosive action and heated storylines, was not only a consistent time period winner and Top 20 performer but showed continued growth in its sophomore season. It was up by 11% when compared to Spring 2011 (A18-49).

As a pop culture phenomenon, Glee is always creating water cooler buzz. A well-established Top 5 performer, the fan favourite hit all the high notes with viewers to become the #1 series on Tuesday nights (A18-49), with an average of 1.9 million viewers per week(Ind. 2+).

Survivor continued to re-invent itself, keeping viewers engaged for its 24^th season with the first ever all-female finale. As Wednesday night's #1 program, its season average topped American Idol by 44% (A18-49) and its Sunday season finale soundly beat the last episode of Desperate Housewives head-to-head by 56% (A18-49).

Global's original hit, Bomb Girls, proved it had all the right stuff when it premiered with 1.6 million viewers. The Canuck wartime drama, profiling the women who risked everything to build bombs for the Allied forces, held its audience to make it the #1 new Canadian program this season. What's more, Bomb Girls was renewed for its second season before the credits rolled on this season's last episode.

The Entertainment Tonight and Entertainment Tonight Canada combination continues to be the country's #1 entertainment news hour for the year with both programs experiencing significant growth in the key A18-49 demo.

In addition to these great stories, there are more highlights including:

• 2012 Grammy Awards broadcast delivered an average audience of 5 million viewers (Ind. 2+) - the highest in 11 years
• House, which dominated its timeslot for the season, ended its 8 year run on a high note, winning the night with over 2.1 million viewers (Ind. 2+)♦
• As the PGA's premiere event, The Masters AMA grew over last year - Saturday by 15% and Sunday by 32% (A25-54)
• The Young and the Restless is the #1 daytime soap and grew its AMA by 18% while Days of Our Lives grew its AMA by 22% when compared to Spring 2011 (A18-49).

There has been a strong increase in online activity as well. Since successfully launching Global's video app, the numbers keep racking up*:

• Almost 1 million downloads
• To date, there have been 9 million full episode views, an increase of 300%
• GlobalTV.com had its strongest spring so far for video, growing 21% vs. last spring with 146 million video views**

Global News

Global News also continued to grow coast to coast this season, reaching over 4.4 million viewers daily (Ind. 2+) and dominating in three out of four English metered markets. In addition to the many new show launches and expansions across the country, our marquee national news properties delivered impressive results:

• An average of almost 1 million viewers tune into Global National each night (Ind. 2+)
• 16X9's move to Saturday night at 7pm resulted in 33% more viewers (A18-49) ♦♦
• The West Block with Tom Clark outperformed CTV's Question Period by 37% (A 25-54) ♦♦

"Global News is embarking on a massive expansion across the country - across all platforms and we're reaping amazing results," said Troy Reeb, Senior Vice-President, Global News and Station Operations. "We're posting strong numbers in every market, our newscasts and people are winning numerous awards and we are developing cutting edge technology to keep our viewers informed and engaged."

Strong momentum was also evident in recent numbers for GlobalNews.ca***:

• The site has witnessed tremendous growth this Spring, increasing by 35% year over year and culminating in an all time high of over 900,000 unique visitors in April (A)
• This growth is consistent across the country with all local sites experiencing significant year-over-year increases in both page views and video views (B)

Source: BBM Canada PPM data, Total Canada: SP12 std (Jan2/2012-May13/2012, confirmed to Apr 29/2012) vs. SP11 (Jan3/2011-May29/2011), AMA (000), rankers based on 3+ airings excludes NFL/NHL Playoffs and HNIC Special); Global News Avg Daily Rch (000)/ Global National M-F AMA (000); ♦ AMA (000) May21/2012; ♦♦ 2011/2012 (FL11 Sept12-Dec18/SP12 Jan2-Apr29) vs. 2010/2011 (FL10 Sept13-Dec19 vs. Jan3-May29) AMA (000)

*-Source: iTunes Connect for downloads, Google Analytics for all other metrics.
**-Source: comScore Inc. Video Metrix, Total Canada, All Locations, Total Audience, Spring: January to April total
***-Source:  A)comScore Inc. Media Metrix, All Locations, Total Canada, Spring representing January to April 2012.   B) Omniture Site Catalyst

Specialty 2011/12 Highlights

Shaw Media's specialty channel portfolio continues to lead the industry with the largest AMA growth (+4%) and the most Top 20 channels across all key demos, with History Television well out front as the #1 entertainment specialty channel.* The broadcaster is also home to the most hit shows, garnering the highest number of Top 10 non-sports specialty programs across key demos including Ind. 2+, A25-54 and M25-54 this season.** History Television owns three of the top 10 non-sports specialty programs (A25-54), with IRT: Deadliest Roads, Swamp People and American Restoration making the cut.

To date, a whopping 12 Shaw Media specialty channels are experiencing year-over-year growth in the A25-54 demo. Channels include Slice (+13%), HGTV (+12%), Showcase (+9%), Action (+5%), National Geographic Channel (+4%) and Food Network (+2%).*** Additionally, the overall portfolio continues to achieve record-breaking numbers with Slice and National Geographic Channel each reaching their highest audience peaks ever.****

Continuing to demonstrate industry leadership in the coveted female demo, Shaw Media specialty boasts the largest audience share of female viewing for W25-54 - 34%. In addition, the broadcaster owns the most female-targeted specialty channels in the Top 20, with HGTV firmly established as the #1 non-sports specialty channel for W25-54 viewers.*

• Shaw Media specialty channels reach 3 out of 4 Canadians or over 9 million viewers (A25-54) each week.
• Slice^TM's The Real Housewives of Vancouver has become the channel's number-one series of all-time.****
• Titanic Week proved to be a massive success on National Geographic Channel, with Titanic: The Final Word with James Cameron and Save the Titanic with Bob Ballard becoming the top two shows ever on the network for adults 25-54.****
• Lost Girl continues to perform, and has become the highest-rated scripted series ever on Showcase for A25-54.****
• Top Chef Canada is the number one series of all time for Food Network

Sources:
BBM Canada PPM Data
*8/29/11-5/16/12
**1/2/12-5/6/12
***8/30/10-5/8/11; 8/29/11-5/6/12
**** 9/3/07 to present

About Shaw Communications Inc.

Shaw is a diversified communications and media company, providing consumers with broadband cable television, High-Speed Internet, Home Phone, telecommunications services (through Shaw Business), satellite direct-to-home services (through Shaw Direct) and engaging programming content (through Shaw Media). Shaw serves 3.4 million customers, through a reliable and extensive fibre network. Shaw Media operates one of the largest conventional television networks in Canada, Global Television, and 19 specialty networks including HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, History Television and Showcase. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index (Symbol: TSX - SJR.B, NYSE - SJR). For more information about Shaw, please visit www.shaw.ca.

Source:  BBM Canada PPM data
***  8/29/11 - 5/6/12
*  1/2/12 - 5/6/12
**  8/31/09 - 5/6/12

Chris McDowall                                  
Director of Publicity
Global  Television
[phone]
[email protected]           

Jessica Gold
Publicity Manager
Dramatic and Factual Channels
[phone]
[email protected]