COMMUNITY TELEVISION: ONE OF THE GREAT SUCCESS STORIES OF CANADIAN BROADCASTING
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release
Community television: one of the great
success stories of Canadian broadcasting
Montreal, April 28, 2010 – TVCOGECO, the community television service provided by Cogeco
Cable (TSX: CCA), is doing an exceptional job in providing relevant and engaging local content
created with, by and for their communities, independent surveys by Environics Research Group and
Cible Recherche reveal. Local partnerships and access is a key ingredient to their success and is
reflected in TVCOGECO’s programming which exceeds the requirements within the CRTC
regulations. This is why Cogeco Cable stated today at the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission (the “CRTC”) hearings on community television that the current
regulations concerning community television are working well.
“Our partners and volunteers from the community have helped produce 54% of our programming,
while regulations impose a minimum of 30% of access programming,” stated Louis Audet, President
and CEO of Cogeco Cable. This may partially explain why our surveys indicate that our customers
are very satisfied with TVCOGECO. Approximately 41% of the households we serve in Ontario tune
in to TVCOGECO on a weekly basis, and 90% of the people served believe that TVCOGECO
provides a valuable service to the community.
1
In Quebec,
2
57% of our customers watch
TVCOGECO every week, a rate that is higher than the 65% observed in communities not served by
conventional broadcasters. 89% of the people surveyed who watch TVCOGECO believe that it
makes a contribution to their community. These impressive figures, as well as the hundreds of
letters of support that we have received from organizations, volunteers and TV viewers,
demonstrate that TVCOGECO is fulfilling its mission and meets the needs and interests of the
communities it serves.”
In its presentation, Cogeco Cable submitted that the existing regulatory framework, in place since
2002, is working well and meeting the objectives of the Broadcasting Act, and that it would be
inappropriate to amend it.
Cogeco Cable is also opposed to making any changes to the funding formula applied to community
channels, whether that involves decreasing or sharing funding with independent community
channels, which already have access to other sources of funding and that Cogeco already finances
beyond the requirements stipulated by the regulations. Such changes would lead to a fragmentation
of existing resources and inefficient management of funding, which would threaten community
channels’ ability to meet the requirements of the regulations or, worse still, threaten their viability.
1
Survey conducted by Environics Research Group in 2009.
2
Survey conducted by Cible Recherche in November 2009.
Finally, TVCOGECO stated that it is ready to fill the gap in new premises in those smaller markets
where the conventional broadcasters have decided that program production is no longer profitable
and are abandoning this niche. In fact, TVCOGECO is already filling this gap in some communities,
and would be ready to expand service on the condition that the existing funding formula used by
community television stations operated by broadcasting distributors remains unchanged and that
the regulatory requirements stay the same.
TVCOGECO operates 37 community channels in Quebec and Ontario. During the fiscal year ended
August 31, 2009, TVCOGECO aired over 12,000 hours of original 100% Canadian content. 54% of
TVCOGECO programming in 2009 was access programming. In addition, last year, TVCOGECO
worked with more than 2,500 organizations and 940 volunteers, who together contributed a total of
74,000 hours.
“We are tremendously proud of our commitment to the communities we serve, and we are aware of
how important TVCOGECO is to them in terms of reflecting many opinions and local interests. In
this sense, the sincerity and commitment of our partners and volunteers inspire us every day, and
encourage us to stay the course,” concluded Louis Audet.
ABOUT COGECO CABLE
Cogeco Cable (www.cogeco.ca), a telecommunications company, is the second largest cable
operator in Ontario, Quebec and Portugal in terms of the number of Ba sic Cable service customers
served. Through its two-way broadband cable networks, Cogeco Cable provides its residential
customers with Audio, Analogue and Digital Television, as well as HSI and Telephony services.
Cogeco Cable also provides its business customers with data networking, e-business applications,
video conferencing, web hosting, Ethernet, private line, VoIP, HSI, black fibre, data storage and
security, and co-location services and other advanced communication solutions. Cogeco Cable's
subordinate voting shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:CCA).
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Information: Marie Carrier
Director, Corporate Communications
Tel.: (514) 764-4700