OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has given Cogeco the green light to move forward with its acquisition of Corus Entertainment’s Quebec radio stations.
Friday’s decision included approval of Cogeco’s request for an exception to allow it to maintain a third FM station featuring a talk-radio format in the Montreal market, in addition to the two permitted by the common ownership policy. However, the CRTC refused Cogeco’s request to transform the CKOY-FM Sherbrooke station into a rebroadcasting transmitter of CKAC-AM Montréal, saying this would result “in the loss of a local voice in the Sherbrooke market”. It has asked Cogeco to divest itself…
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MONTREAL – Following in Rogers’ footsteps, Cogeco has rolled out the Galaxie Music video-on-demand service free of charge to its digital TV subscribers in Ontario and Quebec.
The service allows viewers to select their choice of music videos, or choose from pre-programmed playlists created by a team of music professionals. The lineup currently features 12 playlists and 100 individual songs, and will be updated regularly.
"Beefing up Cogeco Cable’s Video On Demand offering is just one of the many initiatives Cogeco constantly deploys to bring its digital cable TV subscribers an entertaining line-up that’s always fresh”, said Ron Perrotta, VP of marketing…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable’s unionized employees in Quebec have approved in principle two new collective bargaining agreements governing their working conditions.
The new collective bargaining agreements, which will be in force for the next four years, are slated for signature on December 20, 2010 following several months of negotiations. They were presented to employees during general meetings held between November 30 and December 12, 2010.
"I’m pleased with the settlement in the new collective agreements”, said Louise St-Pierre, SVP of residential services, in a statement. “It is very much in line with Cogeco Cable’s vision of labour relations. Knowing that employees…
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TORONTO – The future of cable is “outstanding”. Just ask Louis Audet, the president and CEO of Cogeco Inc. and Cogeco Cable.
Speaking with Cartt.ca prior to presenting the company’s 2010 financial results to shareholders in Toronto last week, Audet shared Cogeco’s plans for wireless, why he’s not worried about Netflix, and his thoughts on vertical integration in Canada.
“There are good reasons to believe that”, Audet said about his unshakeable belief in the cable industry’s rosy future. “It’s not a wanton statement.” A perfect example of cable’s ability to evolve is Cogeco’s plans to trial addressable advertising in Canada next year. “This…
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MONTREAL and HAMILTON – This is something the entire Canadian TV and advertising industry will watch very closely.
Cogeco Cable said Monday it has entered into agreements with Invidi Technologies and Channel Zero to trial the Invidi Advatar addressable targeted advertising system with TV broadcaster CHCH.
Advatar lets television advertisers deliver tailored messaging to individual households during a commercial break. This technology uses public domain demographic information to accurately pinpoint consumer needs and interests, enhancing the relevance of advertising commercials to unique viewers, as Cartt.ca has reported previously.
Addressable advertising simply put, means more efficiency for everyone. Media buyers can market to specific…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has brought its faster Internet packages to Smiths Falls, ON.
Its ‘Ultimate 30’ high speed Internet packages offers speeds of up to 30 Mbps for downloads and up to 1.5 Mbps for uploads with a monthly download cap of 125 GB. For the ‘Ultimate 50’ package, speeds can reach up to 50 Mbps for downloads and up to 1.5 Mbps for uploads with a monthly download cap of 150 GB.
Customers of Cogeco’s television or home phone service will pay $59.95 per month for ‘Ultimate 30’, while ‘Ultimate 50’ will cost $99.95 per month. Cogeco customers who subscribe only to its…
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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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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 – 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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