Cogeco has launched Epico, its first foray into IPTV, as consumers continue to integrate connected viewing into their TV habits.

Epico enables customers to access live and on-demand content through a single interface. Integrated with the Android TV interface, customers have access to streaming services such as Netflix, YouTube, Disney+ and other applications via the Google Play Store. It is also an internet-and-cable bundle package, offering live TV from between 35 to 55 channels, depending on the package a customer pays for.

Other features include a personalized interface, user profiles, voice command and a 4K wireless cloud PVR that can record up to 1,000 hours of content to be watched with or without an internet connection using the EPICO mobile app.

In a conference call discussing the company’s Q1 results, Philippe Jetté, Cogeco’s president and CEO, said the service would be available in approximately 85% of Cogeco’s Canadian footprint. Roughly 12,000 Cogeco customers have already signed up for Epico during a pilot phase.

Cogeco did not disclose total customer numbers in its most recent financial report, but says it is the second-largest cable provider in Ontario and Quebec. That status was helped in December when it closed its acquisition of Quebec-based DERYtelecom, adding roughly 100,000 customers.

By bundling it with internet and SVOD services, Epico helps Cogeco make its TV offering (and the ad opportunities there) more relevant in a Canadian market that is becoming less reliant on traditional pay TV services. According to the latest MTM figures, 70% of Anglophone Canadian households have a cable or satellite subscription, compared to 72% who subscribe to an SVOD like Netflix, while multi-screen viewing is becoming an entrenched norm rather than an emerging trend. Meanwhile, 63% of households have the kind of internet-connected TV that an IPTV service like Epico runs on.

This story originally appeared in Media in Canada