Cogeco Cable Canada appears at CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV public hearing
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Cogeco Cable Canada appe ars at CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV public hearing
Montréal, September 11, 2014 – Cogeco Cable Canada (« Cogeco ») will be appearing today at the
public hearing held by the CRTC to share its position on the future of Canada’s media broadcasting
system and regulatory environment. The proceeding, announced in Broadcasting Notice of Consultation
2014-190 isssued in Apri l, is being held in the National Capital Region.
The public hearing is part of the third phase of Let's Talk TV: A Conversation with Canadians, an
initiative
undertaken by the CRTC, seeking to ensure that the Canadian television system fosters choice and
flexibility in choosing channels, encourages the creation of compelling and diverse programs and
empowers Canadians to make well-informed choices and better manage customer service disputes with
their television service providers.
Below is an overview of Cogeco’s position on the CRTC’s proposals:
More choices for consumers
• Cogeco fully supports à la carte offering of specialty and pay television services and the build your
own package option proposed by the CRTC, both favouring more choices for consumers.
• The most important barrier to the offering of this greater flexibility for Canadian consumers to
choose their television services is the various restrictive terms imposed by some television
programm ing service suppliers in the contracts for the distribution of their programming by cable
and satellite distributors
• Cogeco endorses the Commission’s proposal for a small basic service that includes local
Canadian s tations, 9(1)(h) services mandated f or basic c arriage, educ ational stations , community
channel and prov inc ial le gi slatur e channel.
• An extended basic service, like the current basic service offered by Cogeco should continue to be
allowed and made available to Canadian consumers
• Cogeco prop oses to m ainta in the distrib ution of the U.S. 4 +1 network services as par t of th e basic
service as these ser vic es are avai lab le f or f r ee over -the-air in many areas n orth of the border a nd
do not involve additional programming costs for its basic service customers.
Wholesale and retail price regulations
• In a flexible and competitive m arketplace, the Comm ission should refrain from re-regulating retail
and wholesal e rates for the distribution of television services.
Promotion
• Since Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings (BDUs) are best positioned to understand their
clien ts ’ n e eds and to pr omote their s erv ices in a communication-eff ic ient manner, the Commission
should not involve itself in their promotional activities.
Access and Genre Protection
• Cogeco supports the elimination of access rights for Category A specialty services, particularly for
services owned or controlled by vertically integrated groups.
• The genre exclusivity policy should be eliminated. Programming service suppliers should be able
to compete in any format, which will result in greater pressure on these suppliers to improve their
programming, benefiting both consumers and the entire system.
Simulta n eous substitution
• Simultaneous substitution should be maintained as it helps to preserve a distinct Canadian
program rights market so that the value of U.S. program rights acquired by Canadian
broadcasters for distribution in Canada is not undermined.
“Thr oughout the year s, Cogec o Cabl e Cana da and the broa dcastin g dis tributi on i ndustr y have been fac ed
with m ultiple c hallen ges a nd ha ve s ucces sf ully cont inued their growth by ad apting and m eeting the n eeds
of cons um er s”, s tated Loui se St-Pierre, President and C hief Exec uti ve Of f ic er, Cogeco C ab le Ca nad a. “ As
the second largest cable operator in Ontario and Québec, Cogeco Cable Canada strongly believes that
continui ng to d o so is the b est an d m ost eff ective wa y to satisf y the expectat ions of Canad ian cons um ers,
thus keeping them engaged in the Canadian broadcasting system”, continued Mrs. St-Pierre.
To access a transcript of Cogeco Cable Canada’s presentation at the
CRTC’s Let’s Talk TV public
hearing, pl ease visi t the Cogeco’s website at http://www.cogeco.ca.
ABOUT COGECO CABLE CANADA
Cogeco Cable Canada (
www.cogeco.ca) regroups the Canadian cable operations of Cogeco Cable Inc.
Cogeco C ab le Ca nad a is the second l arges t c ab le ope r ator in O nt ario and Q u éb e c in terms of t he number
of Basic Cable s ervice custom ers served. Its t wo-wa y broadban d cable networ ks provide to its r esidential
and small business customers Analogue and Digital Television, High Speed Internet («HSI») and
Telepho ny servic es. Cog eco Cab le Inc. is a te lecom municat ions corpor ation an d is the 11t h lar gest h ybrid
fibre coax ial cable op erator in North Am eric a operat ing in Canada un der the C oge co Cable C anada bran d
name in Québec and Ontario, and in the United States through its subsidiary Atlantic Broadband in
Western Pennsylvania, South Florida, Maryland/Delaware and South Carolina. Through its subsidiaries
Cogeco Dat a Services and Peer 1 Hosting, Cogec o Cable Inc. provides its c ommercial custom ers a suite
of IT hosting, information and communications technology services (Data Centre, Co-location, Managed
Hosting, C loud Inf ras tructur e and Conn ecti vity), with 20 data c entres , exte nsive f ibre net work s in Montréa l
and Toronto as well as p oi nts -of-presenc e in Nor t h A merica and Eur op e. Cog ec o Cable Inc. ’s s ub ordi nate
voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: CCA).
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Information:
Media
Nancy Bo
uffard
Director of
Corporate Communications
Cogeco Inc.
Tel.: 514 764-4613