OTTAWA – Three of the country’s largest media companies – Cogeco, Quebecor, and Eastlink – are banding together in their opposition of Bell Canada’s proposed acquisition of Astral Media.
The trio staged a press conference Tuesday morning in Ottawa calling the $3.38 billion deal an “unprecedented concentration of media ownership” and unveiled a website called SayNotoBell.ca that it says lays out “the risks” and “potential harm” to consumers and the Canadian TV industry should the transaction be approved. It also encourages Canadians to voice their concerns by submitting a letter through the website to Canada's Ministers of Heritage and Industry,…
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MONTREAL – Bell Canada was quick to respond to what it described as a “public misinformation campaign” launched by Cogeco, Eastlink, Quebecor earlier in the day around its acquisition of Astral Media.
The communications giant issued a statement acknowledging that the proposed transaction will change the competitive landscape, and said that “new reality has competitors worried”.
"With Astral, we're actually leveling the playing field with the long-dominant media/cable company in Québec, Québecor, and bringing new investment and increased competition to the media marketplace," said Martine Turcotte, Bell's vice chair for Quebec, in the statement. "Coupled with the fast growth of…
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TORONTO – It’s not just about choice, it’s about how that choice is defined.
According to the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG), which lost its final offer arbitration dispute against Bell Media just over a week ago, the CRTC appeared to agree with the communication giant’s definition of choice which, simply put, is the more television channels that Canadian viewers can buy, the better.
But is choice about volume, or is it the ability to pick only the channels that viewers actually want to watch?
According to the CIDG, made up of Cogeco, MTS and the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance (CCSA), their consumers…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco launched its three new high speed Internet packages in Chatham, Beamsville, Vineland and Winona, ON this week.
The Turbo 20 package offers a download speed of up to 20 Mbps, upload speeds of up to 1.5 Mbps and a monthly data transfer capacity of 80 GB. For this package, bandwidth usage that exceeds the specified monthly data transfer capacity limit will be billed at $1.50 per additional GB, with a maximum of $50 per month.
It is available for a promotional price of $30.95 per month for 12 months for customers who also subscribe to Cogeco's HD television…
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TORONTO – Cogeco has added Rogers’ channels CityNews Channel and FX Canada to its digital TV lineup in Ontario.
CityNews Channel will air on channel 415 in standard definition and in high definition on channel 821. FX Canada can be found in standard definition on channel 410 and channel 750 in high definition, and will be available on free preview through August 31.
OTTAWA – While Friday’s CRTC rulings may indeed eventually pave the way towards more choice for consumers in the selection of TV channels, what remains unclear is whether that “choice” will truly be driven by Canadian viewers or continue to be shaped by the country’s biggest broadcasters and television service providers.
Friday’s CRTC decision, which chose Bell Media’s final offer over the one presented by the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG), noted that “both parties’ offers moved in the direction of providing more consumer choice”, plus contained “incentives to provide a wide choice of programming in the broadcasting system, and…
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OTTAWA – Communications giant Bell Media was batting .500 Friday after the CRTC awarded it a win, and a loss, in two final offer arbitration disputes between it and the Canadian Independent Distributors Group (CIDG) and Telus.
In its decision on Bell Media versus the CIDG, a group consisting of the CCSA, Cogeco and MTS, the Commission noted that both sides made “significant strides” to resolve the issues between them, and that both offers provided commercially reasonable terms and more consumer choice.
The CIDG final offer affiliation agreement, however, was “inconsistent” with the standstill rule of the Commission’s vertical…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable is expanding into the U.S. after buying Atlantic Broadband for US$1.36 billion, the company announced Wednesday.
Atlantic is the 14th largest cable television system operator in the United States, serving about 252,000 basic video customers in Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, Delaware and South Carolina. It also offers high speed Internet and telephony services.
"This acquisition marks an attractive entry point into the U.S. market for Cogeco Cable”, said president and CEO Louis Audet, in a statement. “There are sizable opportunities for growth including: increasing the penetration of the small and mid-sized business segment, and maximizing the bundling potential…
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MONTREAL – Profits and revenues at Cogeco Inc. continued to rise for the third quarter of fiscal 2012.
Profits bounced back to $55.4 million this quarter, compared to a $179.2 million loss in the same period of the previous fiscal year which was mostly attributable to the write-off of its net investment in its Cabovisao Portuguese subsidiary.
For the period ended May 31, revenue was $358 million, up 8.4% from $330 million in the same quarter last year, primarily due to its cable sector and recent acquisition of Metromedia. Cable revenue grew 7.2% to $319.8 million from $298.2 million, while revenue…
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GATINEAU – Unless there is a last minute change of heart from one side or the other, a panel of three CRTC commissioners will soon decide the terms of the next carriage agreements for 29 Bell Media specialty channels on a number of independent BDUs.
The Commission panel will choose one offer over the other in the final stage – known as Final Offer Arbitration (FOA), sometimes referred to as “baseball arbitration” – of this carriage battle. It’s high-risk business brinksmanship. In Major League Baseball, if a player and his team can’t come to a negotiated salary agreement, an arbitrator…
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