TORONTO – The SCTE Ontario chapter is holding their fall meeting at the Premiere Banquet and Convention Centre on October 21, 2008. The meeting will explore the opportunity and technical requirements for deploying and supporting commercial and small-business services. All members are now invited to submit a simple one paragraph outlining a topic they would be willing to present at the meeting.
Presentations should be approximately 20-30 minutes in length and be primarily technology or best-practice centric. Of particular interest are real-world examples or case studies of successful commercial or small-business deployments including any of video, data, telephone, or…
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IF THERE’S ONE THING distributors don’t like, it’s being told what to do by the CRTC.
As we saw during the April hearings into broadcast distribution undertaking and specialty service policy, cable companies don’t like linkage rules or must-carries or carriage restrictions or much of anything else they “have” to do.
Cable altogether opposed the licensing of the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network as a must-carry, 91(h) channel in 1999, but the Commission still licensed it as a channel which all distributors must carry as a basic service. APTN is one of those channels that furthers the goals of the…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable said today it has completed the $200 million purchase of Toronto Hydro Telecom, the telecommunications subsidiary of Toronto Hydro Corporation, which was announced on June 13, 2008.
The new subsidiary of Cogeco Cable will now operate under the name of Cogeco Data Services Inc.
"The completion of this acquisition represents a significant step for Cogeco Cable because it strengthens our position in the business market segment," said Louis Audet, president and CEO of Cogeco Cable. "Mr. Dave Dobbin, president of Cogeco Data Services Inc., and his management team will continue to operate and lead this…
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TORONTO – Top line results from the Canadian radio ratings across Canada won’t cause too many PDs to break into a sweat.
A few top line (A12+) ratings share highlights:
* Cogeco’s CJMF-FM 93.3 (Rock and Talk) saw a nice spike to a rating of 13.8, up from its S1 showing of 10.8 and well ahead of a year ago, when it came in with a 7.1 showing
* Astral’s English-language Montreal rock station, CHOM-FM rebounded in the ratings to an 11.8 in this book. That’s up from S1’s 9.9 rating but still well off S2 2007’s 14.
*…
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OTTAWA – A review of broadcasting in new media is utterly unnecessary, says an unprecedented joint submission to the CRTC by Canada’s largest Internet service providers.
Friday was the deadline for submissions on PN 2008-44, which only asked for comments on what the scope of any future proceeding on Canadian broadcasting in new media might be. The Commission wants advice on what questions it might ask when it decides to undertake a review of what new media is doing to broadcasting and what Canadian regulations might have to say about it. At this point, it doesn’t want to…
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TORONTO – Sounding not unlike the advice sometimes given in its namesake magazine (er, not that we’d know for sure…) Corus Entertainment CEO John Cassaday said he isn’t willing to “settle” for an average distribution deal when it comes to the company’s youngest digi-net, Cosmopolitan TV.
While the channel is carried by corporate relative Shaw Communications as well as Bell ExpressVu, neither Rogers Cable nor Cogeco Cable in the east, for example, carries the channel, which was launched on Valentine’s Day this year, and was profiled by Cartt.ca.
While Cassaday wasn’t specific about the carriage terms Corus is demanding…
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MONTREAL – Revenue at cable company and radio broadcaster Cogeco Inc. increased by 13.8% to $284 million in the third quarter and by 13.6% to $816 million for the first nine months of fiscal 2008, ended May 31st.
Operating income from continuing operations before amortization grew by 22.4% to $117.2 million in the third quarter and by 21.1% to $327.8 million for the first nine months. Free cash flow reached $37.1 million in the third quarter and $79.5 million for the first nine months.
In the company’s cable sector – which is by far the largest division of the…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added three new on-demand channels, Food Network On Demand, HGTV On Demand and National Geographic Channel On Demand, to its Ontario digital line-up.
Digital cable customers to these three channels can watch some of the most popular programs on the channels free any time they want with Cogeco On Demand.
Subscribers have access to 40 hours of content at all times for each of the channels.
Food Network On Demand is on channel 665, HGTV On Demand on channel 664 and National Geographic Channel On Demand on channel 678 or from the VOD main menu…
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MONTREAL and TORONTO – After the close of trading on Friday, Cogeco Cable announced it has reached a definitive agreement to acquire all of the shares of Toronto Hydro Telecom, the telecommunications subsidiary of Toronto Hydro Corporation for $200 million.
The deal is subject to certain conditions, including regulatory approval by the commissioner of Competition. The purchase price represents a 9.6 multiple of the projected fiscal 2008 EBITDA of THTI. In addition, Cogeco Cable will assume a working capital deficiency and liabilities of approximately $4 million.
THT offers data communications and other telecommunications services such as Ethernet, private line,…
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HAMILTON – The winner of the 2008 Cartt.ca Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Cable-Tec Expo editorial internship is Christian Isla of Clearcable Networks.
Cartt.ca, the Canadian cable, radio, television and telecom industry’s leading news source, each year offers one member of the Ontario Chapter of the SCTE the chance to attend the annual Cable-Tec Expo, the premier cable telecommunications technical trade show.
This year it is being held June 24-27 in Philadelphia.
This is an annual opportunity aimed at those technicians or young engineers whose company might not normally send them to this conference. We began in 2007 when…
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