Montréal, February 21, 2005 – Quebecor Media Inc. is pleased to announce that its TVA Group subsidiary is launching ARGENT, a new French-language business channel entirely devoted to the economy, business, finance and market news. ARGENT will inform viewers who are baffled by market reversals and corporate decisions about the intricacies of the business world and the implications for their personal finances.
The ARGENT service will be carried starting today on channel 92 of Vidéotron's digital line-up. Until the end of 2005, it will be unscrambled and available to all subscribers to the basic illico Digital TV service The addition of the new channel, combined with flexible illico digital packages, demonstrates Vidéotron's continued leadership in home entertainment.
As of February 27, news and features from ARGENT will also be available online, in text and video format, on the http://argent.canoe.com business site.
Vidéotron ltée (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 and residential telephone service. Vidéotron 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. Vidéotron serves 1,453,000 cable television customers in Québec; including over 334,000 illico subscribers. Vidéotron is also the Québec leader in high-speed Internet access, with 527,000 subscribers to its cable modem and dial-up services.
