Montréal, July 6, 2009 - Videotron is pleased to announce that, as of tomorrow, music lovers can watch the critically acclaimed Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae on illico on Demand and Indigo. The documentary about the pioneers of rocksteady, a precursor of reggae, is world premiering at the Musée d'art contemporain from July 4 to 12 as part of the Festival International de Jazz de Montréal (FIJM).
The music documentary features the biggest names in rocksteady, a musical genre that originated more than 40 years ago, including Judy Mowatt, Marcia Griffiths, Dawn Penn, Hopeton Lewis, Stranger Cole, Derrick Morgan, Ken Boothe, Leroy Sibbles and U-Roy, accompanied by musicians such as Earnest Ranglin, Sly Dunbar, Jackie Jackson, Gladstone Anderson, Hux Brown and Scully Simms. Rita Marley, who along with Judy Mowatt and Marcia Griffiths made up the I-Threes, Bob Marley's backing vocalists, also appears. The performers transport viewers back in time with standards such as Rivers of Babylon, The Tide Is High and Stop That Train.
The last of the great singers and musicians of this genre, which was immensely popular in Jamaica before the advent of reggae, will perform at the jazz festival tomorrow night at 9:00 p.m. on the General Motors stage. After the concert, subscribers to illico Digital TV will be able to go home and discover the history of rocksteady by watching the documentary on illico on Demand.
Rocksteady: The Roots of Reggae is available in English with French subtitles on illico on Demand for $4.99 and on the Indigo pay-per-view service for $4.49 (channel 306 starting July 7 at 1:30 p.m.). All illico Digital TV subscribers can access illico on Demand and place orders by switching to channel 900 on their illico Digital TV set-top box and following the on-screen instructions. Once they have ordered a movie, television program or event, subscribers can pause, rewind, fast forward, stop and resume play whenever they like and watch the title as many times as they wish within a 24-hour period.
Videotron Ltd. (www.videotron.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, Internet access services, cable telephony and wireless telephone service. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its illico interactive television system and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services. As of March 31, 2009, Videotron was serving 1,729,168 cable television customers in Québec, including 963,153 illico Digital TV subscribers. Videotron is the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 1,089,251 subscribers to its cable modem service as of March 31, 2009. As of the same date, Videotron had activated 68,015 lines on its wireless telephone service and was providing cable telephone service to approximately 890,918 Québec households and organizations. For the fourth consecutive year, Videotron has been named Québec's most respected telecommunications company by Commerce magazine, based on a Léger Marketing poll.
