MeteoMedia and The Weather Network are among the most widely distributed specialty channels, with 98% of all cable and satellite households receiving one or more of our services. This broad access, essential to our success, is in part thanks to early CRTC regulations requiring our distribution on basic cable. But we must also earn our success. Each week over 9 million Canadians watch our television programming. On average, at any given minute of the day, 30,000 Canadians are watching one of our two services.
Using technology we developed and patented, Pelmorex is able to literally program and deliver over a thousand local weather channels at once. This allows us to provide the same level of local service in Alma, Orangeville, Lakefield, and Nellie Lake, Ontario; Milford Station, Nova Scotia; Saint-Bonaventure and Saint-Hyacinthe, in Quebec; and Canmore and Sundre, in Alberta.
It is also helpful to understand that there is much more to the Weather Network and MétéoMédia than our television operations. We have one of the most accessed Canadian websites. Our popular smartphone applications are found on literally millions of BlackBerry and iPhones across the country, and also on Android and Microsoft Windows-based mobile phones.
Our point is that you do not have to be a large, vertically integrated conglomerate to be a successful Canadian media company. In our view, Pelmorex's success has been achieved because we are focused on what we do best; that is, to produce and make available weather-related information and programming to Canadians over any and all distribution channels available.
We produce more weather forecasts for Canadian communities than Environment Canada. We are proud that all of our products and services are available in both English and French right across the country, not just TV, but on websites and mobile applications as well. But all of this is in danger if vertical integration in the media sector is allowed to proceed without appropriate regulatory safeguards.
Paul.