MONTREAL – Canadian and Portuguese cable company Cogeco Cable says it will soon issue up to $500 million in new debt.
The company has filed with the securities regulators in each of the provinces and territories of Canada, a preliminary short form base shelf prospectus for the issuance of up to $500 million of debt securities, which may consist of debentures, notes or other types of debt securities.
These debt securities may be offered from time to time, during a twenty-five-month period for which the short form base shelf prospectus remains valid. The specific terms of any debt securities…
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WITH THE ENTIRE TV industry in turmoil, all of us supposedly pondering structural reform while audience fragmentation proliferates as the economy sputters and advertising budgets shrivel, everyone is wondering what Canadian television should look like in the 21st century.
(Ed Note: We first ran the following piece on March 16th and now that the OTA license renewal hearing is complete – and having been disappointed by the dearth of new ideas over those many, many days – we decided to take a page out of the OTA business model and rerun it. To us, this is the type of dramatic re-thinking of the…
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MONTREAL – While its Canadian operations are clipping along just fine, competitive pressures are hammering its Cabovisao unit in Portugal, Cogeco Inc. announced today.
While consolidated revenue increased by 14.7% to $311.8 million in the second quarter of 2009, ended February 28th, as compared to Q2 of fiscal 2008, and by 16.5% to $620.2 million, in the first half – and consolidated operating income from continuing operations before amortization grew by 15.6% to reach $126.7 million, and by 19.9% to reach $251.4 million, the quarter was particularly unkind across the Atlantic.
“In the second quarter of fiscal 2009, the…
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TORONTO – Channel Zero’s Silver Screen Classics is available on free preview for the month of April for Bell, Cogeco and Rogers customers.
Specializing in classic movies from the 1930s to the 1950s, the network has scheduled a western-themed weekend on April 25 and 26 called ‘Saddle Up’. Back to back western classics, uncut and commercial free, will be available to customers of Access Communications, Bell Aliant, Bell TV, Cogeco, Mountain Cablevision, MTS Allstream, Rogers, Sasktel, Seaside Communications, Source Cable, and Telus, the press release said.
The theme weekend will also feature a consumer contest for a ‘Wild West Extravaganza…
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DURING A SESSION called “Online, On Demand and On TV, Rogers Cable VP and GM Television, David Purdy, noted that when households showing a high rate of P2P sharing were turned into DVR homes, their P2P traffic dropped by 15%, meaning they were looking for fewer TV and movies on line on demand and instead relying on their cable operator and traditional channels more.
********** Baseball legend Lou Brock, signing autographs in the Fox booth, looks so good at 69 years old, I think he could still swipe some bases today. Baseball opening day is this weekend.
********** Cogeco…
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TORONTO – The new Canada Media Fund (CMF) puts private companies in charge of a "key Canadian cultural fund", worries The Documentary Organization of Canada/l’association des Documentaristes du Canada (DOC).
DOC said in a statement that cable companies have argued in the past that the special levies they collect from Canadians are ‘theirs’, and that they should have the ability to influence the content of programs produced and to spend the money on their own in-house productions. This would effectively give them “full control” over content, copyright and distribution of Canadian programming paid for by public funds.
The…
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TORONTO – Reaction to the new Canadian Media Fund (CMF) was predictably mixed, but the consensus seems to be that the distributors got what they wanted.
For starters, the CMF’s new “streamlined” and “independent” board will be made up of seven members – two appointed by the government, and the other five nominated by the fund’s five largest contributors, namely Bell, Rogers, Shaw, Videotron and Cogeco. The old board had 21 members, and was dominated by producers and cultural groups.
Minister Moore confirmed that the five members cannot be current employees of these companies, but, as to whether they…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco has added a new Internet service to its lineup for Ontario and Quebec customers, called High Speed Internet (HSI) Lite Plus, and HSI Intermediaire, respectively.
The new package will allow download speeds of up to 3 Mpbs, and has a monthly load bit capacity of 20 GB.
"We believe that this new package will be highly attractive to clients who – while not heavy users – use the Internet every day. As people’s needs to share music, videos or other formats and demand for increasingly faster download speeds continue to grow, we are pleased to offer our customers…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added Sportsnet East HD to its line-up in Quebec, in most of the areas where Cogeco offers digital and HD television.
The sports channel, which carries Ottawa Senators hockey, Blue Jays baseball, and other sports programming, is available on channel 545.
“Cogeco Cable is committed to enriching its customers’ HD Television viewing experience”, said Ron Perrotta, vice president of marketing and strategic planning, in the press release. “The addition of Sportsnet East HD to our Québec HD TV offering allows our viewers to discover the outstanding quality of this technology. Our HD programming now includes 24…
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WINNIPEG – Canwest Global said yesterday afternoon it has launched a “strategic review” of its five E!-branded conventional television stations. Saying they are no longer core assets, the company wants to sell the stations and says it should take no more than six to eight weeks to conduct this review.
The stations in question are CJNT-TV in Montreal, CHCH-TV in Hamilton, CHCA-TV in Red Deer, CHBC-TV in Kelowna and CHEK-TV in Victoria. There are three other E!-branded stations out west, but those are affiliates owned by Pattison Broadcasting.
The sale of the stations is one of several choices being…
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