MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable’s unionized Quebec workers have voted to ratify a pair of collective agreements, the company announced today.
The two collective agreements, expired on December 31st, 2002, have been renewed until December 31st, 2008. They provide for a 2% lump sum to be paid upon signature of the agreement and for a pay increase of 2% annually, for 2005 through 2008 inclusively.
The union and company had an agreement in principle completed on June 1st.
On the operational front, these new agreements will allow Cogeco Cable to improve its operational flexibility, facilitate personnel mobility and make recourse…
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SAN ANTONIO – Buzz continued to centre around digital simulcast on day two – another crowded day on the floor of the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Cable-Tec Expo.
But, not all is about scraping bandwidth together with grooming and trans-rating. Some companies had other focuses, other ideas.
Here’s what we saw and heard: ************** Terayon Communications today announced that Cogeco Cable has deployed the Terayon DM 6400 Network CherryPicker platform to power the deployment of all-digital programming. Cogeco is currently simulcasting its channel lineups in southern Ontario.
Cogeco’s deployment leverages the same digital video networking capabilities that have…
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SAN ANTONIO – There were no official numbers at press time but boy, it sure seems real crowded here at the SCTE Cable-Tec Expo – a good thing for the vendors, who filled every open space this year.
Here’s a bit of what www.cartt.ca heard and saw today. ************** This morning’s CTO session was interesting on a number of levels. The panelists were Tony Werner, senior vice-president and CTO Liberty Media, (and also a former Rogers CTO), Mike Hayashi, senior v-p advance engineering and subscriber technology at Time Warner Cable, Paul Woidke, vice-president technology for Comcast Spotlight, and…
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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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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 – 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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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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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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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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