MONTREAL — Cogeco Inc. CEO Louis Audet said Wednesday that the company will prioritize its U.S. cable and Internet business over a potential wireless initiative in Canada. Speaking to reporters in Montreal ahead of the company’s annual general meeting, Audet said Cogeco would like to make other cable acquisitions in the U.S. following a positive experience with its Atlantic Broadband subsidiary. “Yes, we’re looking, but such opportunities don’t appear every day. So you have to be patient, meet people, talk to them and try to convince them,” he said during...
Canada's broadcast distributors and some public interest groups are urging the CRTC not to go ahead with its news channel regulations, arguing there is no systemic problem that needs to be addressed. In final reply comments on the comission's proposed regulations to help startup news channels like Sun News Network get a leg up in the broadcasting system, most companies and groups said the regulations are addressing a problem that doesn’t exist. Shaw Communications Inc., Cogeco Cable Inc., Rogers Communications Inc., SaskTel, Telus Corp., MTS Inc., Eastlink (operated by Bragg Communications Inc.), and CBC/Radio-Canada (which operates competing news channel CBC News Network),...
Sun News Network has performed better than forecasted, reaching 4.9 million subscribers in 2012 and almost matching the channel's subscriber revenue projections under a business model involving...
Quebecor Inc. reported a loss of $45.1 million as revenues rose 0.8 per cent during its second quarter of 2013. For the three-month period that that ended June 30, revenues were $1.09 billion, up from $1.08 billion from the same...
Citing the affordability of television services, the CRTC denied 13 applications for mandatory carriage on basic TV, granting just three new must carry licences to nonprofit channels. Among the 13...
The CRTC denied Sun News Network's application for mandatory carriage on basic TV packages while opening a consultation on a proposal to give Canadian all-news channels “must offer” licences and requiring distributors to group them together on the dial in “news...
Canadian consumers need incentives to make the switch to environmentally friendly electronic bills, SaskTel said in response to CRTC questions about telcos' charges for paper billing. SaskTel, a provincial Crown corporation that offers wireless, landline and IPTV services, said in regulatory documents filed with the commission last week that it has not adopted the industry trend of charging consumers to receive paper copies of their monthly bills. The result, the company said, is that many customers aren’t getting rid of paper invoices, despite the ease and availability of...
The CRTC temporarily suspended its final offer arbitration process for a carriage dispute between BCE Inc. and Quebecor Media Inc. to give the companies more time to negotiate a deal. In March,...
Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary Groupe TVA purchased Les Publications Charron & Co. Inc., which owns magazine La Semaine. In a release Thursday, Groupe TVA said the acquisition is part of the company's strategy to remain a market leader in magazine publishing in Quebec. Claude J....
Quebecor Media Inc. is asking the CRTC to review the definition of “indeterminate contracts” in its wireless code to “level the playing field” in Quebec’s wireless market, said Serge Sasseville,...
Sun Media, a Quebecor Inc. subsidiary, is cutting 360 jobs and closing 11 of its newspapers, the company said. In a release Tuesday, Sun Media said it is closing the Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary editions of its 24 Hours news service, a free daily newspaper designed for commuters. It said it is also closing eight other newspapers in Quebec, Ontario,...
Quebecor Media Inc. named Isabelle Dessureault as the new vice-president of content commercialization and public affairs at its Videotron Ltd. subsidiary, Quebecor said. In a release, Quebecor said Dessureault will be responsible for “the distribution, commercialization and programming of content for all of Videotron's content delivery...
Canada’s publicly traded broadcast distribution companies reported “concrete signs” of cord cutting over the past two quarters as their combined subscriber base fell for the first time since cable TV first become a feature in most homes, said Mario Mota, partner at Boon Dog Professional Services Inc. In a release Thursday, Boon Dog...
OTTAWA, TORONTO—Industry Canada will block Telus Corp.'s proposed deal for Dave Wireless Inc.’s mobile spectrum, as well as any other proposal from an incumbent to acquire wireless...
The federal government should let the CRTC’s wireless code of conduct regulate the mobile wireless sector and back away from its policy objective of ensuring four competing carriers in each region of the country, Scotia Capital analyst Jeff Fan said. In a research note Monday, Fan said the CRTC’s...
Rogers Communications Inc. will be better positioned to compete against rival incumbent wireless carriers BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. in the Quebec market under a new network-sharing agreement with Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary Videotron Ltd., Ken Engelhart, Roger’s senior vice-president of regulatory services, said in an interview. “The market [is] very competitive, but we’ll be going into that fight with a kick-ass network,” Engelhart said Thursday. “We’ve...
Accelero Capital Holding's deal to purchase Allstream from Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. will give the company a cross-country fibre network that would provide backhaul support for mobile wireless services and bundled Internet, voice and mobile wireless contracts in the business market. That is, of course, if...
Quebecor Media Inc. division Contenu QMI announced the appointment of four new directors to its Contenu QMI acquisitions sector. In a release Thursday, Yann Paquet, vice-president of Contenu QMI acquisitions, said Sylvie Tremblay...