MONTREAL – While its competitors in the telecom industry are becoming more vertically integrated, Cogeco president and CEO Louis Audet says his company is comfortable in its position as a mid-sized telecom and has no plans to copy companies like Bell and Rogers by acquiring TV specialty channels or building a wireless network.
Audet has a reason to be confident. Cogeco's first-quarter earnings, released Thursday morning before the annual shareholders' meetings of the company and subsidiary Cogeco Cable, shows its profit up 20% to $47.9 million from $39.8 million for the first quarter of last year,…
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AS THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY, indeed as the whole media world, continues to change, Canadian cable companies and specialty channels are going to struggle to find growth, according to a report from BMO Capital Markets.
Telco IPTV services, such as Telus’ Optik and Bell’s Fibe along with the myriad online video options available to Canadians to view their favourite shows will keep pressure on Canadian cable companies and specialty channel owners. While about 62% of Canadian households subscribe to cable, as Telus and Bell’s IPTV options gain strength cable’s level of penetration will decline by a percent a year says the…
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TORONTO – Canadian Women in Communications (CWC) has unveiled their annual award winners for 2012.
Karen Sheriff, president and CEO at Bell Aliant, has been named the CWC Woman Of The Year. This award recognizes an outstanding woman who has made a significant contribution to the communications industry throughout her career, and who has contributed materially to the advancement of women within the industry.
In the category of CWC Employer Excellence Awards, IBM Canada Ltd. was named employer of the year, while Industry Canada has been recognized for sustainability in gender diversity.
The CWC Leadership Excellence Awards celebrate women of achievement who…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. has officially completed its acquisition of transit advertising company Metromedia CMR Plus Inc.
The deal, announced last month, will see Metromedia Plus added to radio division Cogeco Diffusion and headed up by SVP Richard Lachance.
"Combined with our portfolio of radio stations in many of Quebec's markets, the addition of Metromedia Plus brings a diversification of our media operations and a higher impact media offering for our advertising partners," Lachance said in the announcement.
Metromedia Plus represents over 100 public transit markets in Quebec and across Canada.
www.cogeco.ca
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CHATHAM, ON – TekSavvy is introducing unlimited off-peak hour bandwidth usage for its customers in an effort to offset increased costs for peak usage stemming from November’s CRTC decision on usage-based billing.
In a note to its residential Internet customers this week, the independent ISP advised of a rate increase in February of $3 to $4 per month, and of its plan to offer new 12, 16, and 25 Mbps high-speed DSL packages. Subscribers to its 300GB packages will also see a price increase, but the company noted that “the 300GB meter will not run between the hours of…
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TORONTO – Disney XD and French-language Disney Junior have cracked the programming lineup at Cogeco Cable.
Disney XD debuts to Ontario Cogeco Digital subscribers as part of a three-month preview on channel 99, while the preschool network, available to Quebec-based subscribers, is available on channel 89, also part of a free preview. The launches of the two networks form part of a long-term renewal agreement between Astral and Cogeco Cable for Astral's movie and kids services.
"It is fantastic to have Cogeco on board with Disney XD and Disney Junior en Francais," said Joe Tedesco, SVP and GM, Astral Kids, in the…
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MONTREAL – The Cogeco Fund has approved a three-year commitment to support the production of Canadian television drama series.
For the past 20 years, the Fund has financed the production of movies-of-the week, mini-series and pilots for drama series. This new commitment makes it the only private Fund in Canada to focus on drama production of all formats for all Canadian broadcasters.
“Evolving, adapting and responding to the needs of the industry, while also respecting the creative process and paying attention to the tastes of our audiences, represent a challenge that we proudly undertake year after year”, said the Fund’s chairman…
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BURLINGTON – After 37 years in community programming, Cogeco’s senior director of communications and programming, Maureen Tilson-Dyment, called it a career this week.
A tireless worker and community proponent, Tilson-Dyment (pictured) began as a cable channel volunteer and her career culminated in a standing-room only retirement party Monday evening at the company’s Burlington headquarters which drew just about every community leader and politician from the region.
She has held a number of roles over the years and in her most current one, she was responsible for provincial community relations and information, media and government relations, company outreach and event programs, sponsorships…
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GATINEAU – CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein told the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance and Telus on Monday that the two organizations need not fear Bell Media withholding its TV signals while the independent carriers continue to try to convince the broadcaster to alter its new wholesale carriage agreement.
As Cartt.ca first reported last week, a number of Canada’s independent TV distributors have balked at signing the new contract, which encompasses up to 30 Bell Media channels (including TSN, BNN, Comedy, MuchMusic, Discovery and so on) and have complained to the CRTC that the terms demanded by…
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MONTREAL – Both of Canada's two French-language private television networks made commitments to increase local news programming as CRTC hearings concluded Friday in Montreal.
Remstar, which bought the TQS network out of creditor protection in 2008 and eliminated its news-gathering operations, read the writing on the hearing walls and committed to increase local news programming on its five owned-and-operated stations after spending the week resisting calls to do so.
In '08, the CRTC gave what is now called V Interactions three years of reduced local news minimums when the station was purchased (from…
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