MONTREAL – Cogeco Inc.'s revenue remained essentially the same at $583.1 million in the first quarter of its fiscal year, ended November 30th 2016, compared to $582.9 million in Q1 2015, the company said in a release Wednesday evening.
Adjusted EBITDA increased by 2.4%, to reach $261.3 million compared to the same period of fiscal 2016 as a result of the improvement in its Communications segment.
Profit for the period amounted to $82 million, compared to $66.8 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2016. The increase is mainly due to the improvement of adjusted EBITDA combined with the decrease in depreciation…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Connexion launched its new UltraFibre 120 high-speed residential Internet package in several regions of Quebec Wednesday.
The package, available now in the Alma area in the Lac-Saint-Jean region, the Plessisville area in the Centre-du-Québec region, the Valleyfield area in the Montérégie region, and in the Estrie region, promises download speeds of up to 120 Mbps and upload speeds of 10 Mbps (previously limited to 2 Mbps), in addition to monthly data transfer capabilities of 400 GB.
Cogeco has priced UltraFibe 120 with a 400 GB bitcap at $64.95 per month for the first six months, and $94.95 per…
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GATINEU – The CRTC today declared that broadband access is now considered a basic telecommunications service for all Canadians, that it is setting new speed targets while also creating a new fund that will invest up to $750 million over and above existing government programs.
Further to its legislative mandate, the Commission has set the following targets for the basic telecommunications services that Canadians need to participate in the digital economy:
speeds of 50 megabits per second (Mbps) download/10 Mbps upload for fixed broadband Internet access services. In 2015, 82% of Canadians already had access to speeds of 50 Mbps download/10…
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TORONTO – The rumour mill in the TV business was spinning overtime on this one lately, but today Rogers Communications made it official – it is killing its long-awaited IPTV solution in favour of Comcast’s X1 platform.
The move means the company will take a pre-tax non-cash asset impairment charge in the range of C$475-$525 million in its fourth quarter.
Friday morning’s press saw Rogers tout a new “long-term strategic partnership” with Comcast to bring Rogers customers Comcast's X1 IP-based video platform. However, it will not launch until 2018.
As we have reported, Rogers was hoping to have its IPTV solution (built…
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TORONTO — Bloomberg TV Canada’s first year of operation has been one of growth and expansion, with distribution and advertising levels increasing monthly, the first of several news bureaus across the country coming online, and an “A-list” of newsmakers having appeared on the channel.
Despite not having carriage on Bell TV nor Bell Fibe, Bloomberg TV Canada executives say it has achieved distribution parity with its main business channel competitor, Bell-owned Business News Network (BNN). “We’re very happy, 12 months in, with the progress that we’ve made and the expansion that we’ve seen,” said Chris Fuoco, vice-president of sales and…
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TORONTO – Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been setting up data centres around the world offering a wide range of compute and analytics services in competition and partnership with local service providers and on Thursday it announced it has come to Canada, opening two data centres here – as promised earlier in the year .
Now it’s looking to partner with telecommunications firms to resell its services.
“If you look around the world there are many telco partners who work with us closely to take our services to market and offer complimentary services to the AWS platform,” AWS Canada director Eric…
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TORONTO – Hollywood Suite is marking its 5th birthday with a five-week national free preview promising more than 500 movies.
Just in time for the holidays, viewers can enjoy the gift of the best movies from the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, uncut and commercial-free, on four HDTV channels and On Demand. December titles include the director’s cut of Bad Santa, plus films like 12 Years a Slave, Titanic, The Expendables, The Interview, Raising Arizona, 48 Hours, Beverly Hills Cop, Edward Scissorhands, Sleepy Hollow, Fatal Attraction, American Beauty, Jerry Maguire, and Moneyball.
The freeview is available now through January 5, 2107…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Connexion also unveiled its new television packaging Wednesday, with channels now available either individually or in small theme packages.
Its entry-level package Basic Channels, priced at $25 per month, also includes affiliates of the major American networks and is a prerequisite for other packages or individual channels.
Customers may also create their own My Mix packages of 10, 20, 30 or 40 channels in Ontario, or 10, 15, 20 or 30 channels in Québec, or opt for the ready-made Perfect Mix ($68 per month, with a six month promotional price of $35) or the Ultimate Mix for $95…
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TORONTO — Since launching five years ago with 11 full-time employees, under the leadership of Canadian TV industry veterans Jay Switzer and David Kines, commercial-free movie service Hollywood Suite has slowly but surely been growing.
After rejigging its original studio-focused channels a year ago and rebranding them as a quartet of decades-focused channels in anticipation of the rollout of the pick-and-pay regime, company executives believe the company is well positioned for the new market reality of a la carte TV channel choice.
Despite continuing to be small in stature, now employing 14, Hollywood Suite’s success shouldn’t come as too…
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OTTAWA – The Wireless Code plus customer service improvements by the country’s wireless and Internet providers helped to cut telecom service complaints for a third straight year, the Commissioner for Complaints for Telecommunications Services (CCTS) said Thursday in its annual report.
The report, Guidance In A Sea Of Change, showed that the CCTS received 8,197 customer complaints in 2015-16, down 18% from 9,988 in 2014-15, and that it increased its resolution rate two points to 89%. Wireless services complaints once again topped the list with 50.3% of all complaints, followed by 26.5% for Internet, 19.6% for local telephone service and 3.6%…
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