MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable urged the CRTC to keep close watch over the potential merger between Bell and CTV in order to “preserve competition and protect consumer interests”.
Appearing Wednesday morning at the hearing into the transaction in Gatineau, president and CEO Louis Audet stressed the importance of obtaining specific regulatory safeguards as soon as possible, and definitely before the upcoming vertical integration policy hearing in June, to “prevent abuse of the dominant position” that the new conglomerate would have if the transaction is approved.
"Ultimately, Canadian consumers risk footing the bill for concentration and vertical integration in the absence of greater oversight”, he…
Continue Reading
GATINEAU – While producers and others argued how and where the $220-million BCE/CTV benefits package should be spent, the two largest carriers without broadcast or specialty TV divisions warned the CRTC that something must be done to rein in the power a combined BCE/CTV will have.
While the Commission has long prohibited content exclusives on the TV side (CTV has to make Comedy Network available to all carriers and can’t sign an exclusive with any one or two), our exploding media world has all experimenting, looking for new business models and lines of revenue on new, unregulated, platforms.
Part of that…
Continue Reading
TORONTO and MONTREAL – The sale of Corus’ Quebec radio stations to Cogeco Inc. was completed on Tuesday as planned, the companies announced.
Cogeco acquired Montreal stations CKAC-AM, CFQR-FM, CHMP-FM, CKOI-FM and regional stations CFEL-FM and CFOM-FM in Quebec City, CHLN-FM in Trois-Rivieres, CHLT-FM and CKOY-FM in Sherbrooke, CIME-FM in St-Jerome and CJRC-FM in Ottawa-Gatineau.
To comply with the CRTC’s decision and the common ownership policy limiting the number of FM radio stations that can be operated by any one owner in a given market, Cogeco confirmed that it will sell the two FM stations in Quebec City, plus 104.5 FM in the Sherbrooke market. The three…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Cogeco Cable has become the latest BDU to add Rogers Sportsnet One to its programming lineup.
Cogeco launched the five month old national sports channel on Wednesday in standard definition on channel 426 and in HD on channel 736. It also launched a “companion channel” called Sportsnet Sens which accommodates the regional broadcast restrictions of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators.
www.sportsnet.ca www.cogeco.ca
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Despite stable subscriber growth, first quarter profits at Cogeco Inc. dropped by almost 30%.
The company blamed the result of a one-time favourable income tax adjustment last year for the decrease in profits this year. Cogeco reported net income of $16 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2011, down from $22.7 million in the same quarter last year. Revenue increased by 4.5% to reach $342.8 million.
Cogeco Cable added 70,690 Canadian subscribers and 20,179 customers in Portugal this quarter. The growth in cable, Internet and digital phone subscribers, which the company calls revenue generating units (RGU), was a modest…
Continue Reading
TORONTO – Corus Entertainment said that it will oppose Astral’s applications challenging the CRTC’s approval of the sale of Corus’ Quebec radio stations to Cogeco.
Corus said Thursday that like Cogeco, it “considers that the applications filed by Astral are without merit”. It also confirmed that it will continue with the process to effect the closing of the transaction on February 1, 2011.
As Cartt.ca reported earlier this week, Astral Radio is appealing the CRTC’s decision to allow Cogeco to maintain a third radio station in the Montreal market, an exemption to the Commission’s common ownership policy. It filed a…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Astral Radio is appealing the CRTC’s decision to allow Cogeco to maintain a third radio station in the Montreal market, claiming the move “disrupts the competitive equilibrium”.
In a motion filed with the Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday, Astral called the decision “prejudicial”, and said that it “puts an end to nearly twelve years of consistent application” of the common ownership policy. The common ownership policy limits ownership to two FM stations of the same language in a market. The Commission let Cogeco keep a third FM station in Montreal as part of its overall approval of Cogeco’s plan to purchase of Corus’ Quebec radio assets.
"The sudden lack of predictability…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Cogeco has bulked up its roster of on-demand content in Ontario with the addition of NFL Network On Demand and Big Ten Network On Demand.
NFL Network On Demand (channel 657) and Big Ten Network On Demand (channel 658) are available for free to customers who are subscribers of those channels, representing more than 25 hours of new sports content as the playoff and Bowl season approach.
"Enriching Cogeco Cable’s Video On Demand offering is just one of the many initiatives Cogeco constantly deploys to bring its digital cable TV subscribers an entertaining line-up that’s always fresh”, said Ron…
Continue Reading
OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has given Cogeco the green light to move forward with its acquisition of Corus Entertainment’s Quebec radio stations.
Friday’s decision included approval of Cogeco’s request for an exception to allow it to maintain a third FM station featuring a talk-radio format in the Montreal market, in addition to the two permitted by the common ownership policy. However, the CRTC refused Cogeco’s request to transform the CKOY-FM Sherbrooke station into a rebroadcasting transmitter of CKAC-AM Montréal, saying this would result “in the loss of a local voice in the Sherbrooke market”. It has asked Cogeco to divest itself…
Continue Reading
MONTREAL – Following in Rogers’ footsteps, Cogeco has rolled out the Galaxie Music video-on-demand service free of charge to its digital TV subscribers in Ontario and Quebec.
The service allows viewers to select their choice of music videos, or choose from pre-programmed playlists created by a team of music professionals. The lineup currently features 12 playlists and 100 individual songs, and will be updated regularly.
"Beefing up Cogeco Cable’s Video On Demand offering is just one of the many initiatives Cogeco constantly deploys to bring its digital cable TV subscribers an entertaining line-up that’s always fresh”, said Ron Perrotta, VP of marketing…
Continue Reading
