THERE ARE TWO Canadian TV carriers who offer Netflix to their customers directly via their advanced television set top boxes: Cogeco Cable and Telus Optik TV.
After seeing a recent demo of Optik TV’s impressive capabilities and living with the Cogeco TiVo system for several months, it’s become impossible to imagine what all the other carriers could possibly be waiting for. Offering Netflix to existing customers this way is an utter slam dunk.
While my wife was once ambivalent about our cable subscription and asked repeatedly if it was worth what we pay, I’d have to move into my…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable subsidiary Atlantic Broadband is buying the cable system owned by MetroCast Communications for US$200 million, the companies said Monday.
MetroCast Connecticut's network passes close to 70,000 homes and businesses across nine communities in eastern Connecticut including New London, Waterford, East Lyme, Montville, Plainfield, Killingly, Sterling, Griswold, and Putnam. Additionally, MetroCast Connecticut's system serves approximately 23,000 TV, 22,000 Internet and 8,000 phone customers.
"With eastern Connecticut's strong demographics and MetroCast Connecticut's well-maintained networks, this acquisition brings sizeable residential and business growth opportunities," said Atlantic Broadband president and CEO Richard Shea, in the announcement. "Our goal is to…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has launched a new business phone service designed to meet the specific communications needs of its Fibre Services customers.
The new Hosted PBX – Fibre, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Trunking, and Primary Rate Interface (PRI) Replacement solutions share the objectives of lower phone service costs and improved productivity, plus are scalable to meet customers’ future needs, according to the news release.
The Hosted PBX – Fibre solution offers business customers a highly scalable solution that includes over 40 calling features and is powered by Cogeco Cable Canada's fibre-optic network. Hosted PBX – Fibre is perfect for companies…
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TORONTO – Everyone, and I mean everyone, agrees that if the Canadian TV industry is ever going to both boost revenues and build greater efficiency in the television advertising business, the companies here must work together.
More specifically, the four large vertically integrated companies must work in harmony for the greater good. It has not yet happened. This was an important focus of the discussions that happened at last week’s very informative Future TV Advertising conference in Toronto.
In theory, it should be easy. There are just four seats at the main table (Bell, Rogers, Telus and Quebecor), so the quartet…
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TORONTO and THUNDER BAY – Movie service Hollywood Suite today announced Tbaytel has launched Hollywood Suite GO (HSGO) to their Digital TV subscribers on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
HSGO is available for free to all Tbaytel Digital TV customers who subscribe to Hollywood Suite. Customers can download the Hollywood Suite GO app and take the company’s catalogue of films wherever they want. HSGO includes a customizable watchlist with optional push notifications and social features allowing users to share their watchlists and experiences with friends. The notification options keep users informed about new movies and collections, while the…
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HAMILTON, ON – Cable 14 has been honoured with a Media Award of Distinction by the Ontario University Athletics (OUA) for its live broadcasts of a variety of McMaster University sports, as well as OUA postseason and Canadian Interuniversity Sport national championship events.
The Hamilton-based community channel, co-owned by Cogeco Cable and Rogers (formerly Shaw and Source Cable), began airing McMaster sports on tape delay in the early 2000's. In 2008, with the addition of a fibre link to the Ron Joyce Stadium building project, Cable 14 began live broadcasts from the McMaster campus on a consistent basis.
Since then, Cable…
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GATINEAU – The Canadian Network Operators Consortium (CNOC) is again fighting wholesale service rates of the established telecom and cable companies. The group of independent ISPs is now telling the CRTC that it must make interim all usage sensitive rates from these companies until more fulsome analyses are done.
Bell Aliant, Bell Canada, Cogeco Cable, Rogers Communications, SaskTel, Shaw Cablesystems, Telus Communications, and Vidéotron are all party to the application.
In an application filed on April 29, CNOC argues that evidence has now come to light that demonstrates existing usage sensitive rates are too high. It points to a recent…
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IT'S NOT A HUGE SHOCK that the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) rechristened the Cable Show as the Internet & Television Expo (INTX) this year. That's because the North American cable industry is now focusing much of its time, energy and money on new video equipment, web-based video products, cloud-based video services and super-fast broadband speeds.
All the way with 4K
Take Comcast, for instance. The continent's largest MSO used the cable industry's annual spring gathering, in Chicago this year, to unveil plans for a new ultra high-definition cable set-top and a 4K UHD programming service for its X1 IP video…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable Inc. is merging its Cogeco Data Services and Peer 1 Hosting subsidiaries into a new segment known as Enterprise Data Services.
Cogeco Data Services is a provider of fully managed hybrid information communication technology solutions, while Peer 1 Hosting, acquired in 2013, is a web hosting provider. With 20 data centres and over 50 points-of-presence, the combined business delivers data transport, colocation, cloud and managed services, and dedicated hosting to businesses across Canada, the United States and Western Europe.
“The combination of Cogeco Data Services and Peer 1 Hosting represents a growth opportunity for Cogeco Cable…
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GATINEAU – Earlier this month, a group of 14 broadcasters met for the first time to begin figuring out how to develop a subscription television set top box data measurement system.
In its TV Policy Review decision, the CRTC said building such a system would be a very good thing and set a deadline of April 13th for an industry-wide working group to start moving. Representatives from Bell Canada, Blue Ant Media, CBC, Cogeco, Corus, Eastlink, the Independent Broadcasters Group, MTS, Pelmorex, Quebecor, Rogers, SaskTel, Shaw and Telus met on April 8th saying in its first…
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