TORONTO – The primary headline will be the $40 million raised by Canada’s broadcasters via a pair of telethons on Friday (one in Toronto and another in French in Montreal), but there are a lot of other stories out there of companies from our industry rallying their employees or their customers to the cause.
Canada For Haiti, Friday’s one-hour, commercial-free special produced collaboratively between CBC Television, CTV and Global Television and also aired on Citytv, has raised more than $13.5 million to date for relief efforts in Haiti, it was confirmed today. (Citytv also aired its own “Help for Haiti”…
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HALIFAX – Just three months after his departure from EastLink, Dan McKeen’s career will continue in the same East Coast city in which it began.
The former co-CEO at Bragg Communications-owned EastLink was recently named senior vice-president of customer solutions at Bell Aliant. He left EastLink October 27, 2009 and begins his new job next Thursday.
In an interview with Cartt.ca, McKeen (who spent 24 years first at Halifax Cable, right out of university, which later was purchased by Bragg) is happy to be staying put, while looking forward to moving on. “This lets me work in the industry…
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THE CANADIAN cable, broadcast and telecommunications industries have been quick to mobilize support of relief efforts in Haiti.
We at Cartt.ca are awed by the collective level of compassion and generosity, and offer our sincere congratulations to the companies who have pledged to aid the people of the tiny island ravaged by last week’s earthquake.
In addition to the efforts by Rogers and by Cogeco and Quebecor, below are some other initiatives that we have learned of:
– Telecom equipment supplier Ericsson is sending volunteers, all telecom experts, to set up a container-based mini GSM-system to enable mobile communication for aid workers…
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MONTREAL – Canada’s biggest cable companies continue to step up to support Haiti following Tuesday’s earthquake.
Cogeco Cable pledged to donate $50,000 to the Red Cross to support the organization’s efforts, while Videotron said that it will allow its residential cable telephone subscribers to place calls to Haiti without incurring long-distance charges. It also said that it will credit subscribers with any long-distance charges to Haiti retroactive to January 12, for a period of one month.
Quebecor’s TVA Network and Canoe will broadcast a benefit concert live at 9 p.m. ET on January 22 featuring several Québec artists who have expressed their desire to help…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. will raise its 2010 financial targets thanks in large part to steady growth at its Canadian cable operations.
For the first quarter ended November 30, 2009, Cogeco said that revenue increased by 6% to reach $317.4 million, and operating income before amortization grew 5.9% to top $122.6 million.
Net income amounted to $56.7 million. Excluding a favourable income tax adjustment related to the reduction of Ontario provincial corporate income tax rates, net income would have amounted to $26.9 million, a 17.2% increase compared to the first quarter of fiscal 2009.
The company now anticipates that annual revenue for…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added LCN HD to its high definition line-up in Quebec.
The French news channel features interviews, debates and complete news coverage every 15 minutes of the day, all day. It will be offered in the majority of the areas where Cogeco offers digital cable and HD television.
www.cogeco.cawww.lcn.canoe.ca
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TORONTO – Despite a write-down in the value of its European subsidiary, Cogeco Cable presented 2009 financial year-end results that exceeded projections at its annual shareholders meeting late last week.
Consolidated revenue for 2009 grew by $141 million to $1.22 million, a 13.1% increase over the previous year. Consolidated operating income before amortization was up 17.7% to $524.4 million, due mainly to growth in revenue-generating units (RGU), rate increases and recent acquisitions in Canada.
However, Cogeco still recorded a net loss of $256.7 million for the year, due in large part to $383.6 million impairment loss of net of related income…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has named Martinho Tojo as SVP and GM of its Portuguese subsidiary Cabovisao, effective December 1.
"Mr. Tojo is a seasoned manager with an excellent reputation in Portugal and internationally”, said Cogeco president Louis Audet, in the announcement. “We are delighted to welcome him to the team. His experience, his expertise and his knowledge of the Portuguese market will be key assets for Cabovisao.”
Jules Grenier ends his mandate at the helm at Cabovisao. He will return to the Canadian operations team on February 15, 2010 as VP of sales and customer services.
www.cogeco.ca
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QUIETLY POSTED TUESDAY on the CRTC’s web site were the 2009 aggregate financial data of the large Canadian broadcasters and BDUs. And, as we all knew, the BDUs are doing pretty well. The broadcasters, not so much.
CTV EVP Paul Sparkes tried to quickly introduce some of the data during its Q&A session Tuesday during the ongoing hearing into a broadcaster compensation regime because of the dramatically different bottom line numbers for his company compared to the big carriers. However, he was interrupted by Commission chair Konrad von Finckenstein before he could spit out the admittedly huge profit before…
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GATINEAU – For those of us who have been to a few of these CRTC get-togethers, Marjorie Lemieux will likely stick in our minds for a while.
Dressed in a bright purple sweatshirt, the Rogers Cable customer was on the first consumer panel of the day (a group pulled together from submissions via the “Stop the TV Tax” campaign) for hearing 2009-614, the one called by the CRTC in response to cabinet’s call for a report on the implications of paying a fee for conventional TV.
“My name is Marjorie and I want to stop the TV tax,” she began, adding…
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