OTTAWA – Canada’s telecommunications companies have launched an agency to hear complaints from consumers that can’t be resolved by the telcos or the CRTC.
The office of the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) opened its doors in Ottawa on Monday. It was created in response to a request from Industry Minister Maxime Bernier that telephone service providers work together to create an independent, industry-funded agency to handle complaints that fall outside the CRTC’s jurisdiction and that consumers and small businesses have been unable to resolve directly with their service provider. The request was tied with the federal…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has launched WGN HD, a U.S. digital specialty channel from Chicago, the company announced today.
"As we continue to invest in our state-of-the-art cable network, we will continue to launch new HD channels as they become available," said Ron Perrotta, vice-president, marketing of Cogeco Cable.
WGN HD (channel 293) will be available for free to the majority of Cogeco digital cable subscribers who are paying the $6 HD access fee and who also subscribe to its movies package.
"Our digital cable service has been gaining popularity with more than 43,000 new subscribers in the three…
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MONTREAL – Over the third quarter of fiscal 2007, ended May 31st, revenue at Cogeco Inc. increased by 46.2% reaching $277.4 million and operating income before amortization improved by 44.4%, to stand at $95.5 million.
While Cogeco operates a number of radio stations and has majority control of Quebec conventional broadcaster TQS, it’s the cable side – in Quebec, Ontario and Portugal, that’s really driving the company.
“The cable subsidiary continued to exceed the last financial projections. Revenue generating units (RGUs) are up as well as overall financial results. The media sector improved its revenue mainly due to the performance of…
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TORONTO – Business continues to boom for private radio in terms of national ad sales, which rose 6.1% in the third quarter of this fiscal compared with the same time last year, according to figures from Canadian Broadcast Sales.
CBS says that bookings for the fourth quarter of the broadcast year are on track to climb 9.9% from Q4 last year, with even bigger gains predicted for the first quarter next year. “In the near term, radio will continue to enjoy the positive momentum of the past several years. The early revenue pacing for the first quarter of 2008…
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BURLINGTON – Gaston Germain announced today he is stepping down from his position as vice-president, Ontario.
On October 15 he will start as president and COO of a Canadian programming service, which was not named in the press release. Until then he will remain at the head of Cogeco Cable’s Ontario operating unit.
"I wish to express my gratitude to Cogeco’s management for giving me the leeway to contribute to the evolution of a great company and establish, for all Cogeco employees in Ontario, a solid ground to perform," said Germain in the press release.
Company president and CEO…
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By Greg O’Brien
IF THERE WERE NO big bogeymen around to scare the federal government into re-jigging an open wireless spectrum auction to favour such things as spectrum caps, or spectrum set-asides – and then mandated roaming – there is now, with the announcement that Telus is an active participant in the expected sale of Bell Canada Enterprises.
The press release arrived just after 8 p.m. last night and even though it means little right now, you’ve got to believe that the folks in Ottawa at Industry Canada who are deciding on the rules for the advanced wireless spectrum auction…
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LAST WEEK THE Cable Public Affairs Channel celebrated its 15th anniversary of bringing Canadians the nitty gritty of politics.
As the only place where you find federal Parliamentary debates, committee meetings, inquiry hearings, political talk shows, some international flavour and of course, Question Period, it’s also just about the only Paris Hilton-free media outlet in the world, which perhaps explains why it’s often on in our house…
But, just because Canadian cable companies created it, own it, and politicians on the Hill love it, CPAC still, like any other traditional media outlet, has its challenges. While it was a…
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BANFF – The Canadian Television Fund, saying it was responding to “a concern” but declining to name whose concern, said it would put off any changes to its bylaws until the CRTC is finished its review of the fund.
Two weeks ago, Shaw Communications CEO Jim Shaw sent a blistering letter to the CTF saying the fact the organization was planning to alter its bylaws at the same time the CRTC is examining the fund and its operations “flies in the face of common sense.”
Today, buried in a press release of the CTF’s report to stakeholders, the…
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MONTREAL – Six new high definition channels have been added to Cogeco Cable’s Québec channel line-up, including two French Québec channels, the company announced Tuesday.
“Our customers are increasingly interested in our HD television service as they discover the outstanding quality this technology offers. As the number of available high definition programs and channels increases, Cogeco Cable strives to continuously provide the best possible HD experience” said Ron Perrotta, vice-president, marketing of Cogeco Cable in a press release.
The new channels are: • TQS-CFJP (channel 502) • TVA-CTM (channel 503) • ABC-WXYZ (channel 530) • CBS-WWJ (channel 531) •…
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OTTAWA – Quebecor and MTS Allstream are not alone among telecom and cable firms in their desire for a wireless spectrum auction that would shackle the "big three" mobile phone companies in Canada.
Among those aligned with the Quebec and Manitoba companies that have been leading the charge to have spectrum in the auction set aside for new entrants – and who have also proposed other rules like mandated roaming and tower sharing – include: Cogeco Cable, the Canadian Cable Systems Alliance, Shaw Communications, EastLink, the Assembly of First Nations and Toronto Hydro Telecom, among others.
The list…
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