MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(Marketwire - 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.
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 Basic 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).
(1) Survey conducted by Environics Research Group in 2009.
(2) Survey conducted by Cible Recherche in November 2009.