Twenty-five years ago, Rogers and Shaw carved up cable and Internet access markets into “cable monopoly east” and “cable monopoly west”. This lead some to believe that a tie-up today will have minimal to no effect on either of these markets. While it is true that they did not compete with each other head to head thereafter, Shaw's earlier embrace of new cable network and set-top box technology revealed it to be the more innovative of the two firms, while also forcing Telus to roll out IPTV and fibre to the home five years earlier than Bell in Ontario and Quebec.
Shaw's decision to not enforce data limits on Internet subscribers after Netflix arrived in Canada in 2010, while other big ISPs did, revealed these limits for what they are—artificial constraints on people's use of the Internet. If this deal goes through, Shaw's customers will have to get used to counting their downloads against the meter. The proposed Rogers-Shaw deal will also have a considerable impact on Canadian TV, film and culture.
Ben, take it home, please.