HAMILTON – Fibre to the home is certainly possible – and from a pure bandwidth point of view, certainly desirable. From an economic point of view, though? Not so much.
And is such a conversion going to happen any time soon here in Canada? Not likely. At least that was the consensus around the lunch table I sat at Tuesday at Carmen’s Banquet Hall in Hamilton during the SCTE Ontario Chapter Winter Technical Conference.
Well over 200 from the technical and engineering side of the cable industry descended on Hamilton to hear 10 speakers wax eloquently about the advantages…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable added Parry Sound as its latest market in which the company offers its voice over IP digital phone service.
Residents can now take advantage of Cogeco Cable’s all-inclusive Digital Phone offer for as little as $44.99 per month if they subscribe or are already a subscriber to Cogeco Cable’s High Speed Internet and/ or Cable Television service.
www.cogeco.com
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable announced today the launch of its Digital Phone service in Smiths Falls and Perth, Ontario.
“A comprehensive, accessible, and competitive offering, residents can now take advantage of Cogeco Cable’s unique and all-inclusive Digital Phone offer for as little as $44.99 per month if they subscribe to Cogeco Cable’s high speed internet and cable television service,” reads the release.
“Since its initial launch, the Digital Phone service has had a snowball effect on the number of subscriptions to other Cogeco Cable services and its deployment has been enthusiastically welcomed in the markets where it was introduced.”…
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CALGARY – The Shaw family purchased a million shares of their own company this week, which would have cost them about $19.5 million.
A month ago, it would have cost them about $25 million, but the stock price – along with many on the TSX, has drifted downwards in the past 30 days. Rogers Communications has dropped from $45 to $38 over the same time frame and Cogeco Cable has tumbled from $48 to the $39 range as well.
The Shaw family now holds 47,669,356 Class A and Class B shares of their company.
www.shaw.ca
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MONTREAL – Two potential buyers signalled enough interest in financially strapped Quebec television network TQS this week to convince a Quebec Superior Court judge to give the network another 45 days of court protection from creditors.
Judge Pierre Journet said the receipt of two letters of intention from the two unnamed suitors was an indication that TQS’s financial situation has not worsened to the detriment of creditors, and that a further delay constitutes a “reasonable and credible” condition to finding a long-term solution.
TQS was granted 30 days’ protection in December. The new delay gives controller RSM Richter…
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TORONTO – Following its successful November 30 launch, Family Channel’s newest multiplex offering, Playhouse Disney, is now available to subscribers of Cogeco Cable, Mountain Cablevision, and Access Communications.
SaskTel launches the service on February 21st.
These four television providers, servicing communities in Ontario and Saskatchewan, join Bell ExpressVu in delivering educational and entertaining programming for young children. ExpressVu has carried Playhouse Disney since launch.
“We’re thrilled that Cogeco Cable, Mountain Cablevision, SaskTel and Access Communications recognize the unique entertainment and value proposition that Playhouse Disney offers subscribers,” said Joe Tedesco, vice-president and general manager, Family Channel and Playhouse Disney….
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has launched expanded its digital phone coverage to the Lake Ontario towns of Port Hope and Cobourg.
“Since its initial launch, the Digital Phone service has had a snowball effect on the number of subscriptions to other Cogeco Cable services and its deployment has been enthusiastically welcomed in the markets where it was introduced,” says the company’s press release.
Cogeco phone service can be had starting at $44.99 per month – and an additional $10 off per month for the first 12 months.
www.cogeco.com
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GATINEAU – This morning the CRTC will release its policy decision on the levels of media concentration in Canada, Cartt.ca has learned, just four months after holding a hearing, dubbed the “Diversity of Voices” proceeding in September.
While existing rules were used to make decisions in 2007 on Canwest’s purchase of Alliance Atlantis, CTVglobemedia’s acquisition of CHUM Ltd., Astral’s Standard Broadcasting buy and Rogers Media taking over the Citytv network, new rules will apply to any other mergers.
The old rules, for example, prevented CTVgm from taking the Citytv stations in its deal for CHUM…
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MONTREAL – Consolidated net earnings for the first three months of Fiscal 2008 at Astral Media increased by 15% over last year, rising to $37.5 million and consolidated revenues totaled $198.7 million for the first quarter, an increase of 20% over the same period of fiscal 2007.
EBITDA for the first three months increased 24% to $65.6 million and cash flow from operations rose 31% totaling $46.3 million for the first quarter compared to Q1 ’07.
Astral Media owns and operates such media assets as The Movie Network, Family Channel, Super Ecran and other pay television services, a large…
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MONTREAL – Quebec’s Culture and Communications Minister Christine St-Pierre dropped a firecracker into the middle of the debate over the future of financially troubled broadcaster TQS last week, saying that if the private broadcaster disappears, Radio-Canada will be partly to blame.
“I think that if TQS dies, they’ll find a bullet from Radio-Canada close to the heart,” said St-Pierre who, until her election last year, was a Radio-Canada journalist in Ottawa and Washington.
Radio-Canada vice-president Sylvain Lafrance immediately dismissed the comment, saying the publicly-owned network has nothing to do with TQS’s liquidity problems.
Last year, Radio-Canada announced it would…
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