MONTRÉAL – Cogeco Diffusion’s senior management has apologized for comments and actions that 98.5 FM on-air host Jacques Fabi made when a woman phoned in to his show “Fabi la nuit” and called the Holocaust a beautiful thing. Fabi never attempted to interrupt the woman and even sympathized with her statements.
Cogeco Diffusion also confirmed it has suspended Fabi without pay for a period of one month, effective on the date of the incident which occurred on November 21. B'nai Brith Canada is still demanding an on-air apology from Fabi.
"Cogeco Diffusion and 98.5 FM…
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MONTREAL – Henri Audet, the elder statesman of the Canadian cable and broadcast pioneers who built Cogeco from a single broadcast TV station, died November 3. He was 94.
With an electrical engineering degree from MIT, Audet joined the CBC in 1949 when it was just a radio broadcaster beginning to explore television. He and a few others led the public broadcaster’s push into the new medium, which saw the first station go live in Toronto in 1952 – and two years later the first French-language CBC TV station in Montreal.
However, the CBC’s television coverage was very limited then and…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable is adding 66 new HD channels bringing its HDTV programming line-up to 150 channels in the majority of its Ontario market.
New channels include youth programming (Disney XD HD, Cartoon Network HD, Teletoon HD, ABC Spark HD), sports programming (Sportsnet World HD), movie programming (TMN Fest HD, TMN Encore 2 HD), lifestyle programming (Travel&Escape HD, food Network HD), and more (Space HD, Discovery HD, Comedy Network HD). Cogeco’s HD channels are free with the subscription of the equivalent standard definition channel.
“Cogeco HD TV service offers an exceptional quality and viewing…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable Inc’s net income fell to $44.9 million in the last quarter from $70.1 million a year earlier. Revenue increased by 7.7% to $356.7 million in the quarter up from $331 million, and for the year 11% to reach $1.41 billion. Cogeco blamed the lower profit on an increase in corporate taxes in Ontario and faster depreciation periods.
It attributed the revenue increases to the cable segment, the recent acquisition of Metromedia and the full year impact of its acquisition of the Quebec radio stations held by Corus.
Cogeco added that…
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VANCOUVER – The world’s first gay TV network, OUTtv promises its “most exciting fall programming lineup in its history” has something for everyone. The network is also launching in HD on Rogers and Cogeco (Rogers channel 600 and Cogeco channel 899). OUTtv began broadcasting in HD in July of this year, rolling out across the Eastlink systems.
“We are delighted that Rogers and Cogeco have been so quick to get our HD offering into their lineup. These additions come with packaging changes significantly increases our overall market penetration in Ontario and the GTA. This could…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable's digital customers in Quebec and in Ontario now have access to its Whole Home DVR service that was originally announced back in August. The Whole Home DVR allows subscribers to program and record shows from any connected TV in your home, to take advantage of and share recorded content between all connected TVs and to stop viewing a recorded show in one room, and pick it up where you left off in another.
With Whole Home DVR all recorded content is accessible via any compatible HD receiver in the home. Customers…
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MONTREAL – Some 55 years and 40 acquisitions later, Cogeco’s growth from $20 million to $1.5 billion in projected annual revenues stems from focusing on the future, while providing customers the best services and support each day says the company president and CEO. Louis Audet made the remarks last Wednesday to the Canadian Club of Montréal at the Hôtel Delta Montréal, where he also revealed the company’s ambitious data hosting strategy and explained why its controversial decision to purchase Atlantic Broadband remains a “terrific opportunity.”
Audet calls Cogeco’s video, Internet and telephony services that cover more than 1.6 million…
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MONTREAL – With its traditional business of residential television, Internet and phone in Canada maturing, Cogeco Cable CEO Louis Audet says the United States will be one of the company’s main growth avenues over the next number of years.
Speaking at a CIBC institutional investors conference in Montreal on Thursday, Audet identified Cogeco’s burgeoning business services unit (telecom, data hosting, other IT services and so forth under its Cogeco Data Services division) and further network purchases Stateside as prime growth levers he intends to pull on.
The first plunge into the American cable market came earlier this year with the company’s…
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MONTREAL – It’s back to square one for natural resource channel IDNR-TV after its planned launch this fall on Cogeco Cable in Quebec fell through this week.
In a letter addressed to CEO Ivor Barr, Cogeco’s affiliate relations manager Chantal Cousineau said that the channel’s launch was not technically feasible at this time on its Baie-Comeau and Sept-Iles systems, despite “the interest for IDNR-TV in this region”.
As Cartt.ca has reported, the eight-year old independent channel was banking on a recent groundswell of community support to help it finalize its first major affiliation deal.
www.idnrtv.com
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OTTAWA – Three of the country’s largest media companies – Cogeco, Quebecor, and Eastlink – are banding together in their opposition of Bell Canada’s proposed acquisition of Astral Media.
The trio staged a press conference Tuesday morning in Ottawa calling the $3.38 billion deal an “unprecedented concentration of media ownership” and unveiled a website called SayNotoBell.ca that it says lays out “the risks” and “potential harm” to consumers and the Canadian TV industry should the transaction be approved. It also encourages Canadians to voice their concerns by submitting a letter through the website to Canada's Ministers of Heritage and Industry,…
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