GATINEAU – It looks as though a portion of a CRTC decision that flew under the radar for many people has wrecked what was an excellent promotional outlet for Canadian specialty services and charities.
In decision CRTC 2015-86, part of the Let’s Talk TV process, the Commission surprised the industry by tightening the rules surrounding how the two minutes of local advertising time made available each hour by U.S. channels such as CNN, A&E, Golf Channel and TLC could be used.
Dubbed “local avail” time, American cablecos and other pay TV carriers have turned the sales of…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Connexion is extending its new UltraFibre 120 high-speed residential Internet package to more areas of Quebec as it continues to upgrade its network.
The company said Tuesday that it is boosting upload and download speeds on some of its residential Internet packages in select areas of Newport and Roberval, and launching its new high-speed UltraFibre 120 and unlimited UltraFibre 120 packages for residential customers.
Customers subscribing to Cogeco’s UltraFibe 40, UltraFibe 40 Unlimited, UltraFibe 60 or UltraFibe 60 Unlimited in these areas will automatically be upgraded to the increased speeds at no extra costs.
www.cogeco.ca
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GATINEAU – CRTC commisioner Christopher MacDonald’s persistent questioning on day one of the hearing into license renewals for several BDUs roughly translated to: “What’s taking so long with the set top box viewership data?”
Quebecor, Rogers, Shaw and Eastlink, all members of the Set Top box working group (check), each had very similar answers to MacDonald’s line of questions. Essentially the answers boiled down to: “What we’re doing is hard, pioneering, and with an uncertain business model, so yes, it’s a slow process.”
The group first met more than two years ago.
During the CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV process,…
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TORONTO – Bell Media’s CraveTV is now available to Cogeco customers in Ontario.
Subscribers now have access to more than 10,000 hours of television content for instant streaming, including Emmy Award winner The Handmaid’s Tale and all three seasons of original series Letterkenny (pictured). Customers may subscribe to Crave TV through Cogeco’s call centre and log in on the Crave TV app with their Cogeco My Account credentials.
“This evolution in our offering is consistent with our ongoing commitment to better meet the changing needs of our customers, while offering them an amazing entertainment experience,” said Cogeco Connexion marketing and innovation VP…
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MONTREAL – When a U.S. branch of Montreal-based Cogeco Communications paid US$1.4 billion for the rest of the MetroCast cable network this year, onlookers wondered how big the company wants to grow down south.
Pretty big, CEO Louis Audet suggested Wednesday at an investor conference in Montreal run by CIBC. “We have the potential for our U.S. operations to become bigger one day than our Canadian operations” in Quebec and Ontario, he said. “There is sufficient acquisition potential for that to occur … Now you need to work hard and be a bit lucky.”
Cogeco’s first…
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MONTREAL – While some cable companies are eliminating community TV stations, Cogeco instead is investing in theirs and has renamed its community television stations in Ontario and Quebec to better reflect its ties to the local communities that it serves.
The 19 CogecoTV stations in Ontario are now branded ‘YourTV’ and its 15 Québec stations will now be known as ‘NousTV’. Cogeco made the announcement at the same time as it released its slate of new fall programming, available at Facebook.com/yourtvontario/ and Facebook.com/NousTVQuebec
“This change in the image of our community television…
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TORONTO – Canadian children can now watch their favourite shows in either Spanish or Italian with the launch of two new channels from Telelatino.
Spanish language Teleninos and Italian language Telebimbi are available now to Rogers Videotron, Cogeco and Bell Fibe subscribers. Rogers’ customers may sample both channels on free preview.
Programming includes kids’ favourite animation, live action shows, and popular family movies.
www.tln.ca
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OTTAWA-GATINEAU – The CRTC has decided to push forward with a launch of wholesale fibre access for independent ISPs using interim rates it has laid out for the disaggregated wholesale high-speed access (HAS) services that Bell, Rogers, Cogeco and Videotron may charge competitors in Ontario and Quebec.
The Commission said Tuesday that Telecom Decision 2017-312 will allow providers in those provinces access to services based on a new architecture that will foster competition in the broadband Internet market, despite the Regulator’s ongoing review to establish final rates for these services.
“The availability of disaggregated wholesale HSA services will enable competitors…
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TORONTO – Cogeco Peer 1 has upped its Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) portfolio with a new web application protection product known as AppArmor.
DDoS attacks work by overwhelming targeted machines with junk data traffic. AppArmor provides an added line of defense for customers by helping to block application-layer attacks. Also known as Layer 7 attacks, these exploits target weaknesses in an application or server, with the goal of establishing a connection to monopolize processes and transactions.
"DDoS attacks are becoming easier to deploy, making them more difficult to prevent and trace," said marketing and innovation VP Bertrand Labelle, in the…
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OTTAWA – Canada’s publicly traded television service providers combined lost 22% fewer TV subscribers in the first half of 2017 compared to the same period in 2016, bucking the recent trend of accelerating TV cord-cutting in, according to new research released Monday.
Ottawa-based research and consulting firm Boon Dog Professional Services also found that BCE, Rogers, Shaw/Shaw Direct, Vidéotron, Cogeco, and Telus combined lost approximately 100,931 TV subscribers in their respective fiscal 2017 first and second quarters, down from the 129,000 lost in the same quarters in 2016.
“The significant turnaround in TV subscriber performance at Shaw Cable as a…
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