TORONTO – It’s been a year of enormous growth for The Movie Network on demand, the company announced today.
In its inaugural year just completed, TMNOD has proven widely successful, recording exceptional ratings in both subscriber adoption and satisfaction, exceeding all expectations, says the press release.
The service lets existing TMN subscribers view most of the pay service’s content whenever they like, at no additional charge. The earnings, for the service and the cable operator, come via the “significant decline in our churn rate,” said Domenic Vivolo, senior vice-president, marketing and sales, Astral Television Networks.
"We are delighted with…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable today made official its launch of voice over Internet telephony in many of its major service areas.
Over the last year, Cogeco Cable has successfully tested its new digital telephone service in the Trois-Rivières area in Québec and in the Burlington/Oakville Ontario corridor.
These conclusive trials, as well as the market studies conducted at the same time, have helped to better pinpoint the services and functions that customers want, says the company.
In 2001, Cogeco abandoned testing it was doing in the telephony space after spending about $25 million, saying it would wait for the…
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MONTREAL – Canada’s fourth-largest cable operator, Cogeco Cable, will announce details of its impending launch of voice over Internet protocol telephony this morning.
The company has been testing and quietly launching some customers in the Oakville-Burlington corridor recently but will offer more details this morning.
Surf back to www.cartt.ca later today to read more once the information becomes available.
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ALMOST ALL OF MY TELEVISION watching is on demand. My house is an OD house.
I’m not saying all I watch are movies, old TV shows and kids stuff that my cable company offers via video on demand. What I’m saying is that about 80% of all of my TV watching has morphed into a near fully on-demand model.
I started thinking seriously about that just this week when I read a short Canadian Association of Broadcasters submission to the CRTC. The letter was in response to recent applications from Rogers Cable and Groupe Archambault (a division of Quebecor…
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MONTREAL –Videotron today announced the addition of RAI International to its channel lineup.
This must be one excellent, in-demand channel, because Videotron is the third cable company in three weeks (Rogers was first, then Cogeco) to make a formal announcement of its addition since the CRTC decision allowing it into the country.
Heritage Minister Liza Frulla is even attending a launch event for the channel on Sunday.
RAI International will be available to Videotron’s illico digital television service in the Montreal and Gatineau areas starting 2:30 p.m., June 5, 2005.
RAI International is the international service of Italy’s largest…
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BURLINGTON – Today, on Festa Della Republica, the Italian National Day, Cogeco Cable announced that it will offer RAI International to its digital cable customers in Ontario starting June 5.
A temporary promotional source feed will be available on channel 104 starting June 2 with the full broadcast beginning June 5. RAI International has recently been added to the eligible list of satellite services by the CRTC.
RAI International is a 24-hour international programming service of Italy’s public broadcaster targeted at Italian-speaking communities. It offers a broad range of programs including feature films, news and entertainment. RAI International is…
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NIAGARA FALLS – For the first time in memory, the CRTC is coming to Niagara.
And, will they get an earful on Monday when three days of hearings begin because up first is broadcast veteran Wendell Wilks, who is looking to recreate ITV all over again, this time in the Niagara region.
The founder of Edmonton’s ITV (which is now Global Edmonton) says that the Niagara region (pop. 500,000 or so) is so poorly served by the existing Canadian TV broadcasters that it needs its own station and he’s willing to bet $20 million to prove it.
What’s interesting…
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OTTAWA – The CRTC’s recent decision on voice over Internet protocol telephony has rendered complaints from the Canadian cable industry pointless, said Bell Canada in a letter to the Commission on Thursday.
Cogeco Cable, Quebecor Media (owners of Videotron) and the Canadian Cable Telecommunications Association had all complained in April that Bell Canada had launched a VOIP service in violation of the CRTC’s telecom regs, since Bell did not apply for rate tariffs prior to its launch in Quebec City, Trois Rivieres and Sherbrooke.
Knowing full well that the CRTC had already said in a preliminary viewpoint that it…
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WHILE THE SATELLITE SIGNAL theft issue seems to have receded into the background recently, the Canadian TV industry must keep the pressure on government in order to force change.
A number of things have happened of late to limit the damage caused by illegal U.S. dishes, such as DirecTV’s as-yet-unhacked new access card – and the fact that Bell ExpressVu is nearly done with its card-swap, moving to a far more secure algorithm. The quick Quebec Superior Court decision in April to strike down a lower court ruling which said the Radiocommunication Act was contrary to our Charter of…
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MONTREAL – Saying it needs a new team of leaders to help it meet the challenges posed by the acquisition and integration of the Radiomédia network Corus Radio Quebec has made three key management additions.
While the Astral transaction is expected to be finalized in late May (it received CRTC approval earlier this year) Corus Québec president Pierre Arcand today announced the following appointments:
Jacques Papin is the new vice president of Montreal francophone stations. He has a wealth of experience in radio and has been a member of the Corus Québec team for nearly five years. He has…
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