Videotron Launches illico TV New Generation with Cisco High-Definition Digital Video Recording Services

PRESS RELEASE

Videotron Launches illico TV New Generation with Cisco High-Definition Digital Video Recording Services

Enhanced user interface and new advanced features deliver next-generation viewing experience

Montreal, Quebec – March 27, 2012 – Videotron, a leading Canadian telecommunications operator providing communications and broadband entertainment services, announced today it has chosen Cisco's HD set-top box platform to deploy the next generation of its enhanced illico digital TV service. 

Videotron will use the Cisco Explorer® 8642 HD-DVR and 4642 HD set-top boxes to deliver a best-in-class enhanced entertainment experience. Available in the province of Quebec, illico TV New Generation offers a new customer experience including advanced video services and faster navigation.  

Highlights:

·         illico TV New Generation subscribers can use their remotes to access interactive entertainment and information embedded in particular programs, such as music, weather, local information, voting and polling, and other services. Subscribers may also benefit from Digital Video Recorder (DVR) functionality, Video-on-Demand, Electronic Program Guide, Pay-Per-View, Caller ID, Weather, and the ability to choose tailor-made entertainment packages. 

·         The Cisco 8642 HD-DVR optimizes Videotron's existing Cisco-powered cable head-end infrastructure and DOCSIS® network to give consumers greater access to broader video and entertainment experiences including broadcast television and video-on-demand.

·         The Cisco Explorer 4642 HD and 8642 HD-DVR set-top boxes give service providers the opportunity to:

·         Advance their video service plans by integrating the quality of high-definition video, digital video recording, and new service application features.

·         Offer consumer innovative features such as a 500-gigabyte DVR hard disc drive that supports up to 280 hours of standard-definition and up to 55 hours of high-definition programming, hybrid video service support, open standard support, multiple tuner support as well as USB 2.0 and Ethernet connectivity.

·         Qualified to meet ENERGY STAR® Tier 1 strict energy-efficiency guidelines, the Cisco 8642 HD-DVR requires less than 1 watt of power consumption in standby mode, and is capable of ‘light sleep' mode.  

Supporting Quotes:

Pierre Roy, vice president, Engineering, Research and Development, Videotron:

"The latest generation of Cisco Explorer set-top boxes supports the Tru2way open standard allowing us to offer a tailored customer experience to a broader audience. The Cisco Explorer set-top boxes help us to differentiate our innovative service and applications while retaining our market leadership."

Mark Kummer, vice president, Service Provider Operations, Cisco Canada:

"Videotron is a leader in bringing the capabilities and convenience of HD and DVR services to Canada, and Cisco is proud to help further the company's vision. With illico TV New Generation, Videotron can continue to advance its video strategy by utilizing its head-end and DOCSIS fibre optic networks combined with Cisco's set-top technology to deliver best-in-class video entertainment   experiences on air, online, on demand."

Additional Resources:

·         About Videotron

·         Cisco Explorer

About Videotron

Videotron, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quebecor Media Inc., is an integrated communications company engaged in cable television, interactive multimedia development, and Internet access, cable telephone and mobile telephone services. Videotron is a leader in new technologies with its interactive Digital TV service and its broadband network, which supports high-speed cable Internet access, analog and digital cable television, and other services.

About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in networking that transforms how people connect, communicate and collaborate. Cisco Canada Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of Cisco, has offices across Canada dedicated to customer support, sales and service. For ongoing news, please go to http://newsroom.cisco.com/canada/.

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News Release from Compuware - Fewer Online Purchases

Poor Web Performance Results in Tablet Users Less Likely to Make Purchases Online

DETROIT, March 13, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Compuware Corporation (Nasdaq:CPWR), the technology performance company, today published the findings of the first global study of tablet users' web experience expectations. The survey reveals that global tablet users have high expectations for web experiences and a third are less likely to make purchases online from companies that don't meet those expectations.

Tablet users expect websites and transactions to work flawlessly. Their expectations have been shaped in part by years of using powerful PCs to access fast websites delivered by Internet leaders like Amazon and Google. The survey reveals that users expect tablets to perform as fast, or faster, than on a desktop or laptop computer at home.

However, the new global survey titled "Engaging the Tablet User: What They Expect from Websites," reveals that four out of ten global tablet users have experienced a problem when accessing websites. Among those that experienced a problem, two-thirds reported slow load times, and more than four out of ten experienced website crashes or problems with website functions.

Key survey findings include:

Poor web experiences on tablets impact the bottom line.

·         A bad website experience will also drive 46 percent of tablet users to competitive web sites; 35 percent are less likely to visit the problematic web site on any platform; and 33 percent are less likely to purchase from that company.

·         Nearly half of tablet users will retry a web site only once or twice if it did not work initially.

Tablet users' web experience expectations are high.

·         Almost 70 percent of tablet users expect a web site to load in two seconds or less.

Website issues are common for tablet users.

·         Among those who have experienced a problem, slow load times are the most frequently cited issue (66 percent), followed by site crashes (44 percent), problems with site functions (42 percent) and issues with site format (40 percent).

·          

"Consumers and enterprises have embraced tablets in large numbers for everything from web browsing and social networking to key business applications that increase employee productivity and drive revenue," said Steve Tack, CTO of Compuware APM. "However, based on the survey results, companies are not meeting tablet users' web experience expectations. Tablet users represent a coveted audience that in general tends to spend more per order, so organizations that ignore tablet users do so at their own peril."

To view a summary of the key survey findings in an interactive graphic, go to http://ow.ly/9Bmcp

To read the full survey findings, go to http://ow.ly/9Bi1Z

The Compuware Gomez platform is the industry's leading solution for optimizing the performance of web, non-web, mobile, streaming and cloud applications. Driven by end-user experience, Gomez provides a unified view across the entire application delivery chain, from a user's browser or mobile device, across the Internet or a corporate WAN, in the cloud, to inside the data center, eliminating blind spots from the First Mile to the Last Mile.

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Compuware Corporation

Compuware Corporation, the technology performance company, provides software, experts and best practices to ensure technology works well and delivers value. Compuware solutions make the world's most important technologies perform at their best for leading organizations worldwide, including 46 of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and 12 of the top 20 most visited U.S. web sites. Learn more at: http://www.compuware.com.

Those Millions on Facebook

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Those Millions on Facebook? Some May Not Actually Visit

By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN

On the first page of Facebook's prospectus for its sale of stock to the public, it pegs the number of its "monthly active users" at a whopping 845 million people. The social networking site arrives at an even more astounding number when it comes to "daily active users": 483 million people.

Those are some huge numbers. If it is hard to believe that so many people are clicking on facebook.com every day, that's because well, they aren't, exactly. Those eye-popping numbers should have an asterisk next to them.

If you managed to wade through to Page 44 of Facebook's prospectus, you'd discover that the company provides a definition of an "active user" - and it is unlikely to be what you expected.

Facebook counts as "active" users who go to its Web site or its mobile site. But it also counts an entire other category of people who don't click on facebook.com as "active users." According to the company, a user is considered active if he or she "took an action to share content or activity with his or her Facebook friends or connections via a third-party Web site that is integrated with Facebook."

Come again?

In other words, every time you press the "Like" button on NFL.com, for example, you're an "active user" of Facebook. Perhaps you share a Twitter message on your Facebook account? That would make you an active Facebook user, too. Have you ever shared music on Spotify with a friend? You're an active Facebook user. If you've logged into Huffington Post using your Facebook account and left a comment on the site - and your comment was automatically shared on Facebook - you, too, are an "active user" even though you've never actually spent any time on facebook.com.

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