TROIS-RIVIERES – Cogeco officially opened its new operations centre in Trois-Rivieres on Monday.
The multi-functional $18 million facility consolidates Cogeco Cable's Quebec telecommunications nerve centre in the Mauricie region. In addition to bringing together some 500 employees under one roof and creating nearly 100 direct and indirect jobs, the new 79,000 square foot building houses a modern work environment and cutting-edge hi-tech equipment.
"Inaugurating this new centre demonstrates Cogeco's commitment to the region and our recognition for the people who live here, who have supported us for over 50 years”, said president and CEO Louis Audet at the ceremony (seen below,…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Diffusion said Wednesday that it has sold two of its four Québec City region FM radio stations to Leclerc Communication Inc. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The sale of CJEC-FM and CFEL-FM comes at the behest of the CRTC which required Cogeco to sell off some of the stations that it acquired from Corus in order to comply with the common ownership policy in the Québec City and Sherbrooke markets.
The company said in a statement that proceedings for the sale of CJTS-FM in Sherbrooke are continuing.
In other company news, Cogeco Inc. has renewed its…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. may be trying to unload its flagging Portuguese subsidiary Cabovisao.
According to a report by telecommunications market research and consulting firm TeleGeography, Cogeco is shopping the cableco to various Portuguese and international telecom operators and private equity funds.
A Cogeco spokesperson at the company’s Montreal headquarters declined to confirm the report, noting in an email to Cartt.ca that it is the company’s policy not to comment on rumours.
But a second report by TeleGeography quoted officials at Portugal Telecom and Optimus during the Congress of the Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications, who declined interest in buying…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Diffusion Inc. (CDI) has agreed to comply with CRTC requirements around the use of musical montages in the programming of its French-language radio stations and take part in discussions about French-language vocal music requirements.
The Commission said Thursday that CDI-owned CKOI-FM and Astral’s CKTF-FM were found to be airing up to 18% of long montages composed almost exclusively of popular English-language and non-Canadian music, contrary to regulations, and imposed conditions of licence.
While pledging to adhere to the CRTC’s new requirement, CDI pointed out that CKOI-FM was still owned by Corus during the period in question, and…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC is restricting the use of musical montages by two Francophone commercial radio stations, and has kicked off a learning exercise on the French-language private radio industry and the Francophone music industry “in order to more fully understand the problem”.
The Commission said Thursday that it has imposed a condition of licence on Astral’s station CKTF-FM and Cogeco’s station CKOI-FM limiting their broadcasting of montages to no more than 10% of total programming per week after the two stations were found to be airing up to 18% of long montages composed almost exclusively of popular…
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – Bell Media won its desired 690 kHz spot on the dial in the Montreal radio market, while Cogeco Diffusion was shut out by a newcomer for the 940 kHz location.
The CRTC issued its decision Monday, granting Bell Media’s request for a frequency change for its TSN radio station from 990 kHz to 690 kHz. As Cartt.ca reported, Cogeco had applied for an English-language all-traffic station on AM 940 to accompany its French-language service Radio Circulation 730 that launched this fall.
The Commission also awarded two new AM radio licences for the market, which is currently served by 34 stations, 21…
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THE REACTION TO THE CRTC’s decision to quash usage-based Internet billing in favour of a couple of other options (complete with set rates) has been all over the map, with several hailing it as a win for consumers while others predict broadband rates will only rise because of it. Then again, there are also some in the middle taking a wait and see approach.
Dennis Beland, senior director regulatory affairs, Quebecor:
“The decision is a victory for artificial competition. We’ve always been defenders of facilities-based competition and if you take a step back and look at the…
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LAST YEAR AT THIS time, Kevin Crull was into week three of his transition from long-time telecom executive to the leader of the largest Canadian broadcasting company.
Now president of Bell Media, the company which owns the CTV and CTV2 conventional TV networks, 29 specialty channels including market leader TSN, 33 radio stations and the Sympatico.ca portal, Crull came over from Bell Canada’s telco side, having run Bell Residential Services for five years. For a decade prior to that he was a senior executive with AT&T and US West.
One of his final projects at Bell Canada was writing the business…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. has completed a private placement issue senior unsecured notes for a total of $35 million.
The company said Monday that net proceeds will be used to reduceCogeco’s bank debt.
Interest on these Notes, which mature November 7, 2021, is payable semi-annually in arrears on November 7 and May 7 of each year starting May 7, 2012.
www.cogeco.ca
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable is adding Sun News to its lineup in Ontario starting Tuesday.
For the past six months, Cogeco Ontario customers have been able to watch the channel via the old over-the-air Sun TV signal that is scheduled to cease operation at midnight on October 31. The channel, a joint venture between Quebecor’s TVA Group and Sun Media Corporation, will be available on channel 195 (SD) and 705 (HD), plus be added to Cogeco’s ‘Digital Select’ theme package.
“We always strive to provide the most interesting and relevant offering on the market”, said Ron Perrotta, Cogeco’s VP of marketing…
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