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Shaw Communications Inc. knew by mid-2014 that it needed a new television product, and fast.

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Customers were questioning the value of bundled services, the broadcast regulator was talking about mandating skinnier, cheaper TV packages and à la carte channels, and online streaming trailblazer Netflix Inc. was gaining traction.

More critically, Shaw was losing conventional cable customers to Telus Corp., its chief western Canadian rival, which had an innovative internet protocol television (IPTV) platform that customers seemed to like.

“We were in fairly urgent need to replace our platform, because the video product from our main competitor was, in fact, a very good product at that time and they were using it effectively to steal share and to win customers from us,” said Jim Little, Shaw’s executive vice-president and chief marketing and culture officer. Getting share back from Telus was “Job No. 1,” he added.

Shaw already had sunk millions into developing its own IPTV product by the time Zoran Stakic, its new chief technology officer back then, met Comcast Corp.’s chief technology officer Tony Werner at a CableLabs meeting in 2014. Comcast had recently launched a cloud-based TV product called Xfinity X1 and was in the early days of licensing the technology to other companies.