MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added travel and cooking content from Canal Evasion and Zeste to its on-demand lineup in Quebec.
"Our customers are real fans of the shows these channels offer, but sometimes their schedules just don’t allow them to tune in right at broadcast time, and they’d like to have more flexibility”, said VP of marketing and strategic planning, Ron Perrotta, in the announcement. “We’ve been wanting to give them control over their television experience – free of charge. That’s what we had in mind when we signed this agreement."
Cogeco’s digital TV customers in Quebec with access/who subscribe…
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MONTREAL – Rene Guimond has been named vice president of public affairs and communications for Cogeco Inc.
Guimond most recently held the role of vice president of development, new media with Cogeco Cable. He joined the company in 2005 when he was appointed president and CEO of Cogeco Radio-Television (CRTI), taking the helm of the TQS television network and heading Cogeco’s radio operations.
His new responsibilities will be to develop and consolidate synergy between Cogeco’s public affairs and communications resources and to raise the company’s profile with its different markets, including governmental relations, Tuesday’s announcement detailed.
"I am confident that Rene Guimond’s…
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TORONTO – Cogeco Inc. CEO Louis Audet said today that as programmers continue to push carriers for more and better distribution on one side, consumers are pushing back on the other side against price increases and in favour of flexibility – and the two are headed for an inevitable crash.
The CEO of the fourth-largest Canadian cable company told the Scotia Capital 2011 Telecom and Tech conference in Toronto Tuesday morning that there is “a tendency for programmers to try and push things on distributors in greater quantities,” where they want more and more of their channels carried in ever-larger…
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TORONTO – Tony Ciciretto directed a rather unusual question to Canada’s telecom sector – why does it insist on competing in areas where it would make more sense to work together?
In a speech on Monday as part of the Toronto Board of Trade’s technology series, the president of Cogeco Data Services said that fierce competition on infrastructure development has served to turn networks into just a commodity.
“This may seem like heresy coming from a guy who runs a company that may be best known for its network, but as an industry we are over-building our network infrastructure”, Ciciretto…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has announced a public debt offering of $200 million senior secured debentures series "2".
The interest rate of the debentures was set at 5.15% and priced at $99.807 per $100 for an effective yield of 5.175% per annum. Interest will be payable semi-annually on May 16 and November 16, with the first interest payment on May 16, 2011. They will have a term of 10 years with a maturity date of November 16, 2020, and closing of the offering is expected to occur on or about November 16, 2010.
The company said that the net proceeds from…
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THE ONTARIO CHAPTER of the SCTE is calling for nominations to fill three open seats on its board of directors.
SCTE Ontario has over 500 members, making it the second-largest chapter membership in North America. The bylaws require six board members, elected for two year terms, with three board members replaced each year in order to provide continuity.
Chris Macfarlane (Cogeco), Eric Goulden (Telonix) and Jason Lowe (Clearcable Networks) will remain on the board until the end of 2011. Board of director nominations for the next two year term are now being accepted as James Myles, Bill McMillan and Joe…
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TORONTO – Rogers Communications announced late Thursday that it has spent $75 million on voting shares of Cogeco Cable and Cogeco Inc.
Rogers Communications is acquiring the subordinate voting shares of Cogeco Cable (892,250 of them) at a cash purchase price, excluding commissions, of $43.98 per share, for aggregate consideration of $39.2 million. As for Cogeco Inc., Rogers has agreed to purchase 946,900 shares for $35.7 million.
Rogers already owns a large stake of the company’s voting and non-voting shares. The Cogeco Cable shares being acquired represent approximately 2.7% of the subordinate voting shares and after these purchases, Rogers will own…
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OTTAWA – The country’s largest cable companies want the CRTC to treat them the same as Bell and Telus. At least, as far as the Commission’s rules on speed matching go.
In a petition submitted to Cabinet last week, Cogeco, Quebecor on behalf of Videotron, Rogers and Shaw asked that the Governor in Council vary, rescind, or refer back to the Commission its decision on Telecom Regulatory Policy CRTC 2010-632 issued on August 30, 2010.
That decision, as Cartt.ca reported, was based on a public proceeding launched in May 2009 to consider whether incumbent local exchange carriers (ILECs) and cable…
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GATINEAU – Expanding the basic service objective to include broadband would have substantial negative financial impacts on their businesses, a group of small independent ISPs told the CRTC on Monday during the fourth day of hearings into the obligation to serve and other telecom matters.
This is the second week of the hearing, which moved back to Gatineau after three days in Timmins, Ont.
David Buffet, president of Radiant Communications Corp., said that creating a new subsidy regime to fund broadband expansion would turn a slight profit the company generated in 2009 to a net loss. Revenue…
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MONTREAL – On-going turbulence at its European operations helped to pull down fourth quarter profits at Cogeco Inc. by 16.2%.
Net income for the fourth quarter was $12.3 million, down from $14.6 million last year, despite a 5.5% increase in revenue from $316.2 million in 2009 to $333.6 as of August 31, 2010. For fiscal 2010, Cogeco’s revenues increased 5.5% to $1.3 billion, with a net income of $56.3 million, compared to a loss of $79 million a year earlier.
“Despite the slow stabilization of the global economic environment in fiscal 2010, Cogeco managed to achieve strong results, surpassing nearly all…
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