Mountain Cablevision
 | |
| Industry | Media and Communications |
|---|---|
| Fate | Merged |
| Successor | Shaw Communications (system later resold to Rogers Communications) |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Defunct | 2009 |
| Headquarters | Hamilton, Greater Toronto Area, Niagara Region |
| Products | Cable TV, Internet, Telecommunications, Broadcasting |
Mountain Cable was one of three cable television service providers for the city of Hamilton, Ontario and its surrounding area, specifically the Hamilton Mountain area and Haldimand County. Its operations were acquired by Shaw Communications in 2009, which then resold them to Rogers in 2013. The other two providers in the Hamilton area are Cogeco and Source Cable (formerly known as Southmount Cable).
History
Mountain Cable was founded in 1959 as "General Co-axial Services, Limited"; it specialized in installing Master Antenna systems on Apartment buildings, hotels, and resorts.
That same year, The Ontario Housing Corporation (which designed the Buchanan Park subdivision on Hamilton Mountain) was surveying the possibility of building a whole housing project with no above-ground utilities (placing them all underground to improve safety and reliability during storms). The neighbourhood's homeowners approached the company to have General Co-axial Services install a CATV system with the intention of an alternative to bulky and somewhat unsightly roof-top antennas. The homeowners also asked the company to lay the first neighbourhood-wide underground utility lines. The neighbourhood would become the first housing development in all of Canada that would have all of its utilities placed underground, with no utility poles other than street lights.
Within two years, over three quarters of the homes in the subdivision were linked to the CATV system, and the roof-top antennas (which were considered eyesores) were rendered inferior and obsolete to the newly installed CATV system, which provided superior delivery of consistent and reliable television station signals.
Since these early days, the company has since changed its name to Mountain Cable, and has expanded greatly in size from offering just 12 channels to 400 customers, to offering more than 230 channels to over 40,000 customers in Hamilton, Mount Hope, Binbrook, Byng, Caledonia, Cayuga, Hagersville, Dunnville and Jarvis.
In July 2009, Shaw Communications announced that it would be acquiring Mountain Cablevision, pending approval from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).[1] This would be Shaw's first cable system acquisition east of Sault Ste. Marie since the 2001 swaps with Rogers Cable and Cogeco. The sale was approved on October 22, 2009.[2] Mountain Cablevision was officially rebranded as Shaw in November 2009.[3]
On January 14, 2013, Rogers announced it would be acquiring Shaw's operations in the Hamilton area (which had remained under the legal name of Mountain Cablevision Ltd.).[4] The CRTC granted administrative approval to the transaction (i.e. without a call for public comment) on March 1.[5]
Services
In addition to their cable television services, Mountain Cable also offered digital phone and high-speed internet services.
Community television
The local cable television station Cable 14 was partially owned and carried by Mountain; it continued to be partially owned and carried by Shaw, and now Rogers.
References
- ↑ Shaw Communications press release: "Shaw Affiliate to acquire Mountain Cablevision", 7/16/2009.
- ↑ Shaw Communications press release: "Shaw Closes Mountain Cablevision Transaction", October 22, 2009.
- ↑ [Per Mountain Cablevision's website at http://www.mountaincable.net]
- ↑ [As reported in the Globe and Mail at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/rogers-to-buy-shaws-wireless-spectrum-mountain-cablevision/article7340045/]
- ↑ Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (2013-03-19). "Ownership chart for Rogers - Distribution" (PDF). Retrieved 2013-07-02.