UPDATE 2-Shaw posts unexpected profit drop as it loses TV subscribers

(Adds details from conference call, details, shares)
Jan 14 (Reuters) - Canada's Shaw Communications Inc
SJRb.TO posted an unexpected 4 percent fall in first-quarter
profit as a continued drop in television subscriptions offset a
rise in internet accounts.
The company said on Thursday a significant number of losses
was due to the shutting down of work camps in Fort McMurray, an
oil hub in Alberta.
The near 70 percent plunge in oil prices since June 2014 has
slammed the energy-producing province of Alberta, with jobless
rate rising to 7 percent in December 2015 from 4.7 percent a
year earlier.
Shaw said it will continue to see a decline in business in
northern Alberta.
However, the company maintained its 2016 capital investment
of about C$980 million on a consolidated basis.
The company said on a conference call that it still expects
flat to low single digit growth in operating income before
restructuring costs, amortization.
Shaw, which competes with Telus Corp T.TO in west Canada,
said its consumer unit lost 30,000 television and 5,600 landline
telephone accounts in the quarter ended Nov. 30.
The Calgary-based company added 11,000 new retail Internet
customers and 2,600 business internet accounts.
The company's net income fell to C$218 million ($152
million), or 43 Canadian cents per share, from C$227 million, or
46 Canadian cents, a year earlier.
Analysts on average were expecting profit to rise to 48
Canadian cents per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shaw's quarterly revenue rose 2.2 percent to C$1.42 billion.
The company said on Wednesday it would sell its television
assets to Corus Entertainment Inc CJRb.TO to fund its bid for
wireless company Wind Mobile.
Shaw's recent deal-making more closely aligns its strategy
with that of Telus in choosing not to own the content they
distribute.
The sale of media assets to Corus has helped assuage
investor concerns about how Shaw would finance the Wind
acquisition while also providing it more focus, analysts said.
Shares of Shaw, which had fallen 24 percent in 2015, closed
up 7 Canadian cents at C$24.75.
($1 = C$1.44)