MONTREAL – After analyzing the spectrum auction rules, meeting with several potential partners and talking business plans, Quebecor Media chief Pierre Karl Peladeau says his company will be a national wireless player.
Well, he didn’t say national for sure, but if he’s going to play the game outside of Quebec, which he did say for sure, it’s more than likely to be a nationwide play. He has already said he likes the advanced wireless spectrum auction rules set out late last year by Industry Canada and that he will bid on spectrum. Today was the first time he…
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MONTREAL – All of Quebecor Media’s business segments reported higher revenues in 2007, the company reported today.
Operating income grew by $164.3 million (20.5%) to $963.9 million in 2007, mainly because of significantly improved results at cable division Videotron, where operating income increased by $130.2 million (25.4%) thanks to cable telephony growth, overall subscriber growth and price increases.
Operating income also increased in newspapers (by $18.3 million or 8.8%), primarily as a result of the acquisition of Osprey Media, and at TVA. Excluding Osprey Media’s operating income and the impact of the consolidated stock option plan, operating income increased…
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MONTREAL – Cogeco Cable has added Quebecor Media’s Les idées de ma maison, a brand new digital channel, to its cable lineup.
The channel is devoted to home decoration, renovation, do-it-yourself, cooking, landscape design and lifestyle programming.
“Fans eager for new ideas to revamp their living spaces are sure to find everything they could wish for with original TVA series such as Ma maison Rona, Tout simplement Clodine, Le brunch de Maman Dion, Maman Dion and Dodo Déco and hit series including Martha Stewart Living and La touche d’Olivier,” says the press release.
www.cogeco.ca
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media will unveil a new French language digital specialty service today.
Les Idees de ma maison will focus four main themes: renovation and do-it-yourself; cooking; design and décor; and lifestyle.
More to come.
www.tva.ca
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MONTREAL – TVA Group reported net income of $15.6 million for the period ended December 31st 2007, which compares favorably to a net loss of $13.0 million, or $0.48 per share, for the corresponding quarter of 2006.
While there was growth in operating income of the Quebecor Media division’s television sector of $569,000, or 3% compared with the corresponding quarter of 2006, it was mainly due to a “significant increase in the operating income of the Shopping TVA home shopping division,” says the release, and a “decrease of 40.6% in the operating loss of SUN TV.”
Those results offset…
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GATINEAU – “The CTF is gratified that the great majority of interveners strongly support the Canadian Television Fund and emphasize that one of the Fund’s greatest strengths is its adaptability to new challenges faced by the industry,” said Douglas Barrett, chairman of the board of the Canadian Television Fund, in closing the week-long hearing on the future of the fund today.
“When considering changes to the industry’s funding system, the most critical objective is ensuring that, given that the competing demands of stakeholders in the production, broadcast, and distribution system, the interests of the Canadian public, including both taxpayers…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media’s Videotron now has over 636,000 local telephony customers, the company announced this morning.
Three years to the day of the company’s launch of the service, the cable company’s voice over IP phone customer list continues to grow at a pretty amazing rate.
Powered by a very low price, at year end, there were more than 636,000 residential and business subscribers to Videotron cable telephone service, a year-over-year increase of 238,500, or 60%, announced the company.
In 2006, there was a net increase of nearly 235,000 in the number of consumers who opted for it. Between…
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OTTAWA – Following a request by the federal government to reconsider a regulatory decision, the CRTC issued Monday a ruling that practically mirrors its first decision.
In Broadcasting Decision 2008-12, the CRTC confirmed that Avis de Recherche (ADR), a digital channel devoted to crime prevention, had to be carried on digital basic by all Class 1 and Class 2 cablecos and satellite TV distributors in Quebec at a monthly wholesale rate of 6 cents per subscriber. These are the same terms as the original decision issued in July 2007.
Mandatory distribution of the French-language channel comes into effect on January 24, according to…
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MONTREAL – Quebecor Media Inc. and its subsidiaries, which include Videotron and TVA, are not affected in any way by the decision of Quebecor World to seek court protection from creditors, Quebecor Inc. said Monday in a statement.
Quebecor World is an independent company, distinct from the two other entities, and its current situation will have no effect on the normal, continuing operations of Quebecor Inc. and Quebecor Media Inc., stated the company in a media release.
Quebecor Inc., the principal shareholder of Quebecor World, had hoped to avoid having to seek court protection, but the banks rejected the…
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I’VE NEVER BEEN ONE to fear large corporations. I don’t think big oil is out to get anyone. I don’t think fast food chains want to kill their customers with fat. I don’t think chemical companies sell lawn fertilizer that will blind the neighbour’s cat.
And I don’t think big media companies are out to tell the world what to think. With the level of competition we have, that’s impossible anyway.
I do think that by their very nature, however, big companies, especially publicly traded ones, can be selfish. They can be cutthroat, to be sure, but also a little…
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