MONTREAL — Cogeco Inc. released its second quarter 2020 financial results late Tuesday while also announcing it is withdrawing its financial guidance for the fiscal year 2020 due to the economic uncertainty created by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company says the negative impact of Covid-19 will be felt especially by its radio operations which generate revenue primarily from the retail industry, a sector hit hard by mandated closures. The company has already downsized its radio division.
For the second quarter of 2020, Cogeco reported its revenue remained essentially stable compared to the same period of 2019 and reached $610.8 million….
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MONTREAL — Cogeco Connexion, reported Tuesday its self-install kits for Internet and TV services have become increasingly popular with customers during the Covid-19 pandemic, and the company is encouraging other customers to follow suit.
This self-installation approach is recommended in the context of the current pandemic in order to ensure the safety of all, says the news release. The cable company’s self-install kit contains all the equipment and instructions necessary for self-installation of new products and services.
“Although the context is particular, it is extraordinary to see how creative our Cogeco employees have been and how we were able to…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc. announced today it has temporarily laid off 130 employees in its media division thanks to advertising pullbacks due to the Covid-19 crisis.
The company owns 23 radio stations in Quebec and Ontario, including the popular Rythme FM brand. The cutbacks make up around 20% of the division’s workforce.
“This difficult decision was made in the context of an unprecedented economic crisis that is causing a meltdown of the advertising market which is the source of revenues for our stations,” said a company spokesperson to Cartt.ca.
The crisis has not yet affected the company’s primary businesses, which is broadband…
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MONTREAL – “Our teams at Cogeco across Quebec, Ontario and the U.S. East Coast are all working tirelessly to ensure our customers’ connectivity and their access to information and entertainment,” said Philippe Jetté, company president and CEO in a Friday press release.
“More than ever, access to our Internet, TV, telephony and radio broadcast services are of paramount importance for the communities that we serve, and I thank all our employees and partners for their commitment and resilience.”
All of Cogeco’s office employees transitioned to working from home over the past several days, the release explained. For employees who must work…
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Consumer groups say it’s worth risking network quality for MVNO access
GATINEAU – The only two telecoms which appeared in front of the CRTC on Tuesday during day six of the Commission’s wireless policy review took some time to urge the commissioners to look at the limitations of Cogeco’s hybrid mobile network operator model.
That model would allow MVNOs which already own and operate wired or wireless networks to lease network space from the big three national players – Bell, Rogers and Telus – in exchange for continuing to invest in their own infrastructure in their own operating territories.
Quebecor said it…
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OTTAWA – Telus and Cogeco are arguing in court that the standstill rule that has effectively forced Quebecor to deliver its TVA Sports signal to Bell customers is a completely valid way for the CRTC to enforce the status quo in the public interest, contrary to the claims of the two principal players in this legal battle.
The role of the CRTC under section 10 of the Broadcasting Act is to ensure consumers don’t become “collateral damage when either attempts to leverage its market position in an anti-competitive fashion to extract unfair benefits from its counterparty,” Telus said in…
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MONTREAL — Cogeco announced Tuesday its majority shareholder, Gestion Audem Inc., has entered into an agreement to sell a block of subordinate voting shares on a private placement basis. Gestion Audem is the Audet family holding company, which owns majority control of Cogeco’s voting shares.
In connection with the sale of 288,183 subordinate voting shares, Gestion Audem will convert 210,643 multiple voting shares into subordinate voting shares, the news release says. The transaction does not alter the control of Cogeco since, upon completion of the transaction, Gestion Audem will retain control of Cogeco and ownership over 1,599,017 multiple voting…
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By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — Cogeco is closer than ever to launching a wireless service, but it still requires regulatory change before it can do so properly, company CEO Philippe Jetté told journalists on Wednesday as the company held its annual shareholders meeting in Montreal.
It’s one of several dossiers where Cogeco is seeking to either change the rules or fight to maintain them depending on their business interests.
Jetté (pictured, standing), who took over from controlling shareholder Louis Audet (seated) as CEO in 2018, said he is looking forward to presenting his company’s proposal for a “hybrid mobile…
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MONTREAL — Cogeco Inc. reported its revenues and profits increased in the first quarter of 2020 compared to the same period last year, primarily due to growth in its American broadband services business and the acquisition of several radio stations a year ago.
Overall, Cogeco’s revenue increased by 1.8% to reach $618.5 million in Q1 2020, compared to the same quarter of 2019. The company’s adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) in Q1 2020 reached $290.5 million, an increase of 5.2% over the first quarter of 2019.
Revenue from Cogeco Communications accounted for $586.8 million of the company’s…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Communications announced today its U.S. subsidiary Atlantic Broadband will purchase Thames Valley Communications for US$50 million.
Thames Valley is a broadband services company operating in Southeastern Connecticut. The transaction is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close within three months, says the press release.
The deal will see Atlantic Broadband add approximately 10,000 customers to its operations in Connecticut and “allows Atlantic Broadband to expand its presence in a market where the company is already well established following its acquisition of MetroCast’s Connecticut broadband operations in 2015,” reads the release.
“We always look to expand our…
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