MONTREAL – Cogeco Communications today announced it has signed a deal to acquire iTéract Inc., a telecommunications service provider in southern Quebec.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
iTéract uses a combination of fixed-wireless and fibre-to-the-home technologies to serve approximately 2,000 customers in large rural regions south of Montreal and Quebec City.
“Given the exceptional circumstances due to the Covid-19 crisis, the parties will work to ensure an orderly closing of the transaction, which is expected in the coming weeks,” says the press release. For the time being, it will continue to operate under its brand name, Internexe.
As part of the transaction,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO — Cogeco TV customers in Quebec now have access to Hollywood Suite’s four HD channels of commercial-free movies, as well as Hollywood Suite On Demand and the Hollywood Suite Go streaming app.
Already available on Cogeco TV in Ontario as well as BDUs across the country, Hollywood Suite launched yesterday in Quebec on Cogeco TV channel numbers 705-708 (TiVo and legacy). Cogeco subscribers in Quebec can take advantage of a 30-day free preview of Hollywood Suite until May 21.
“We are thrilled to work with Cogeco to bring Hollywood Suite to the Québec market,” said David Kines, president and co-founder…
Continue Reading
HALIFAX — To help entertain families while socially distancing at home during the Covid-19 pandemic, kids channel Toon-A-Vision announced Tuesday it is launching on Cogeco and will be available free to all Cogeco customers on channel 729 as of April 22, 2020.
“Toon-A-Vision’s newest partnership with Cogeco means more Canadian families will have access to fresh new shows they’ve never seen before,” says Adam Mimnagh, president of Toon-A-Vision, in the news release. “We provide safe, but funny content that isn’t available in Canada on other children’s networks, or streaming services, which gives us that special something that we think families…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL — Cogeco Connexion reported Tuesday it has seen a significant increase in traffic on all of its services over the past month as teleworking and greater use of online educational and digital entertainment platforms have caused peaks in network utilization during the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the news release, Cogeco has experienced the following network traffic increases in the last month:
Approximately 60% greater use of its Internet services during the day and about 25% at night;
40% increase in traffic for its video-on-demand services and growth of between 20% and 40% for other video streaming services, including…
Continue Reading
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….
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
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…
Continue Reading
