HAMILTON – Local cable operator Mountain Cable has begun selling a special kids’ TV Remote to its customers with more than half the retail price going to McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton.
Just in time for Christmas, 2007, the remote itself is called the Cricket, made by Universal Electronics. It’s a funky, kid-friendly orange and purple TV remote that features eight buttons with logos, pre-programmed to directly tune popular kids’ channels. The Cricket remote also has a circular image holder at the top, which, when shipped, features a picture of the Cricket, but can be easily personalized to display a child’s picture, favourite character, or cartoon.
Mountain is selling the remotes for $19.95 with $10 from each sale going to the hospital. The remote is an easy way to make sure kids are directed only to channels parents prefer.
“The Boris Family, who own Mountain, and our employees are excited about selling the Cricket just because it is both a fun gadget and a kid-friendly tool whose popularity will guarantee a wonderful donation to a great Hospital,” said Pat Kiely, Mountain’s director of business operations and development. The Cricket is immediately available at the Mountain offices at 141 Hester Street on the Mountain in Hamilton. The Company will be looking at other venues where the remote will be made available for sale.
The Cricket’s six buttons have channel logos on them (along with two “wild-card” programmable buttons) – the buttons directly tune to the following channels in Mountain’s digital lineup: Family Channel, Playhouse Disney, Teletoon, Teletoon Retro, YTV, Treehouse, TVO Kids, National Geographic Channel.
While the remote Mountain is selling is pre-programmed to its lineup, parents can easily adapt the channel selection to another cable company’s channel lineup by referencing the handy guide that comes with each unit.
“Mountain Cablevision extends a thank you to its program partners, Astral Media, Teletoon Canada, Corus Entertainment, Alliance Atlantis and TVOntario,” said Kiely. “They immediately responded with strong support, especially when we told them about the Cricket Project and the donation to McMaster Children’s Hospital. We also want to thank Digital Art & Graphics, a local Hamilton company, for their help with this project as well,” Mr. Kiely added.
www.mountaincable.on.ca
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