MONT TREMBLANT – Cogeco CEO Louis Audet said Thursday he thought it pretty improbably that Rogers Cable would want to overbuild his company’s regions of Halton, Oakville and Burlington.
He was responding to a question at the CIBC Institutional Investor Conference at the Fairmont Mont Tremblant, Quebec.
Cartt.ca broke the story last week that Rogers had applied to the CRTC to expand its cable licensed territories to include the large piece of Cogeco’s Ontario territory as well as that of Aurora Cable.
Audet doesn’t figure Rogers has any plans to completely overbuild, as it would be far too costly….
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Canadian Broadcast Sales has hired Veronica Low to spearhead its new venture into Quebec.
Coming over from Astral Media Radio, Low will be Director, Business Development, of CBS Radio Quebec and will be uniting three large forces in the Quebec radio industry Corus, Cogeco and Radio Nord. CBS Radio Quebec, under Low’s leadership, will bring three broadcasters under one purchasing umbrella and will offer a dedicated resource in the province for uniting advertisers with radio stations and listeners, says CBS.
“The combination of Corus, Cogeco and Radio Nord under this new initiative strengthens the opportunities to deliver…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has announced the addition of Canada’s MTV to its digital line-up in Quebec.
“By adding MTV, we are giving our customers the choice to watch even more of what they want,” said Ron Perrotta, Cogeco Cable’s Vice- President, Marketing, in the press release. “As we continue to invest in our state-of-the-art cable network, we will continue to launch new digital channels as they become available.”
MTV will be available in Quebec on channel 155 to Cogeco Digital Cable customers, as part of the “Variety” theme package at no extra cost to current subscribers of the…
Continue Reading
By Greg O’Brien
THE CANADIAN CABLE Systems Alliance annual general meeting is always a great time. Compared to some of the other events I attend through the year, it’s tiny. But it’s very useful and always well organized. I always come away from it having learned a lot – and finally having had some face-to-face time with people I normally only chat with via e-mail.
The “learnings” (not really a word, but it’s one everyone uses) this year were plentiful. From new technologies and services to future-gazing and concrete advice on how to approach video on demand.
But there was a bit…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has announced the addition of Canada’s MTV to its digital line-up in Quebec.
“By adding MTV, we are giving our customers the choice to watch even more of what they want,” said Ron Perrotta, Cogeco Cable’s Vice- President, Marketing. “As we continue to invest in our state-of-the-art cable network, we will continue to launch new digital channels as they become available.”
MTV will be available in Quebec on channel 155 to Cogeco Digital Cable customers, as part of the “Variety” theme package at no extra cost to current subscribers of the package.
MTV offers interactive…
Continue Reading
MONT TREMBLANT – When Cogeco Cable began rolling out video on demand about five years ago, “we thought we were building a virtual video store,” says the company’s director of affiliate relations JP Caveen.
Not any more, of course. VOD has moved leaps and bounds away from that.
Caveen was part of a video on demand panel organized by CTAM Canada held Monday afternoon during the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance 14th annual general meeting that included a programmer, an aggregator and three operators.
They were there to share their success stories and challenges with the independent cable companies who…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – If it can’t buy ’em, it looks like Rogers might overbuild ’em.
Rogers Cable has applied to the CRTC to extend its cable territories in Ontario to include a chunk of Cogeco Cable’s Ontario wheelhouse: Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills, as well as into tiny Aurora Cable’s market in Aurora, just north of Toronto.
A move like this may signal a stark departure from the historically collegial cable industry where each company kept to its own territory and expanded by purchasing other cable companies. (Aurora and Cogeco are both known not to be for sale, however.)
In…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Radio-Canada said today it has served Cogeco Inc.-controlled broadcaster TQS with a notice of disaffiliation.
By virtue of a contractual agreement Radio-Canada’s Television programming is presently broadcasted thanks to an affiliation to TQS. The current contract will soon be up for renewal in August 2008. “Since Radio-Canada wants to have the means and tools required to fulfill its mandate and meet the needs of residents in Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Saguenay, we concluded that disaffiliation was the best possible solution to achieve these objectives,” says a press release from Radio-Canada.
“The broadcasting environment has changed radically since the…
Continue Reading
MONT TREMBLANT – There’s just a couple of days left to register for the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance annual general meeting.
Canada’s independent cable operators, their programming and technical suppliers and a distinguished cast of guest speakers will highlight the three days at the base of the mountain.
The event begins Sunday evening with the president’s reception from 7 to 9:30 p.m. and the real meat of the conference is Monday, with Tuesday set aside for the annual – and much anticipated – golf tournament.
Monday’s speakers will be:
* Dean Prevost, Chief Corporate Officer at MTS Allstream Inc.,…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Cogeco Inc. CEO Louis Audet told a conference yesterday that the company is looking to Eastern Europe for its next acquisition.
With everything in Canada, save for some independents here and there in its neighbouring territories, already claimed, Cogeco spent over $650 million to buy Cabovisao in Portugal in 2006. It was an acquisition that faced many doubters, but has turned out well for the company.
And with much of Western Europe pretty well developed, modern and consolidating, too, Audet told attendees at the BMO Nesbitt Burns Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday that Eastern…
Continue Reading