History
Metro Videon Community Antenna Television Inc. was formed "quietly" in 1962, after three additional television signals — CBWFT, KCND, and CJAY, started broadcasting in 1960.
The initial partners were Randy Moffat, owner of CKY (radio); Ralph Misener, owner of CJAY Channel 7 television; Famous Players theatres, owner of several cable TV systems including the one at Thunder Bay, Ontario; and Claude Boucher, Videon's first general manager.
They expanded service to Pinawa, Manitoba before approaching the federal Department of Transport for a license to operate in Winnipeg.
Metro Videon had waited to apply for a cable-tv license because the Department had "frozen" new applications for community antenna (CATV) companies to serve towns and cities so they could draw up regulations for this type of service. But yet at the same time, the company was so confident that everything would work out, that prior to the announcement of the service, they pre-purchased and installed large amounts of coaxial cable underground in parts of Tuxedo, Fort Garry, and Assiniboia. They paid a rental rate of 60 cents per 100 feet of coax. to Manitoba Telecom Services (MTS). This saved Videon money because MTS was placing their telephone cables underground at the same time.
Preliminary negotiations with MTS for use of telephone poles and underground right-of-way to string coaxial cable through the western half of metropolitan Winnipeg went from 1963 to 1967. Later in the year, Videon had started to construct the headend and cable TV infrastructure. Videon had hoped to include the suburbs east of the Red River, but this fell to another company, Greater Winnipeg Cablevision.
The new cable company announced that they would charge $10 to connect to their service, and $5 per month to subscribe to the signals. This low fee remained much in effect until the advent of Canadian pay television in 1983.
Videon's first administrative offices were located at 2 Donald St. South, but moved to 651 Stafford St. around January 1976.
For a short while in 1976, Videon carried the audio of CJOB-FM on cable 6, CBW-FM on cable 7, CKY-FM on cable 9. The CRTC did not allow this and Videon had to discontinue the service in early April 1976.
A month later Videon had to pull a special closed-circuit program signal between Health Sciences Centre and the St. Boniface Hospital because the CRTC did not allow "point-to-point undertakings."
In 1978 Videon applied to the CRTC for a 50 cent fee increase, the first since the cable company began operations in Winnipeg.
After the major rebuild of 1987, Videon added the Assiniboia Downs Racing Network on January 23, 1988. This made possible for the first time so-called "off track" betting.
Read more about this topic: Videon Cablesystems
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