IPTV across Canada
IPTV in Quebec usually means a French-first home: menus in French, the news in French, and help in French when something stops working. Below are the lines that carry it, from Vidéotron and Bell in the cities to Telus in the Bas-Saint-Laurent and Xplore on rural roads, plus the two corners that keep a different clock.
Internet in Quebec
Most Quebec households pick between Vidéotron and Bell. Vidéotron, owned by Quebecor, runs cable and fibre through greater Montréal, Québec City, Gatineau, Sherbrooke and Saguenay, and Bell sells fibre in the same cities and many smaller towns. Elsewhere, Cogeco began in Trois-Rivières and is the cable company in places like Drummondville, Saint-Hyacinthe, Magog and Rimouski. Telus is the old local phone company across much of eastern Quebec, the network that started as Québec-Téléphone, and it sells fibre in Rimouski, Baie-Comeau and Sept-Îles. On back roads, Xplore offers fibre in some regions and fixed wireless in others.
Our streams come from servers in North America, and from Gatineau or Gaspé the distance is rarely what freezes a picture. The Wi-Fi between the router and the TV usually is. Open the IPTV speed test in the TV's browser after supper: an HD channel wants about 10 Mbps and a 4K one about 25. The internet speed guide covers what to do if you come up short.
Time zones
Nearly all of Quebec keeps Eastern time, from Gatineau and Montréal out to Gaspé and Saguenay, so the guide and our support hours need no conversion there.
The Magdalen Islands sit at the longitude of the Maritimes and keep Atlantic time, an hour ahead of Montréal all year, changing clocks on the same weekends as everyone else. A game at 7 p.m. in Montréal starts at 8 p.m. on the Islands.
The Lower North Shore, from Kegaska to Blanc-Sablon, stays on Atlantic standard time all year and never moves its clocks. That puts it level with Montréal from March to November and an hour ahead in winter, which is why it has its own row in the table below. Player apps take the guide's times from the device, and some devices only offer zones that move with the seasons, so check the listings after each clock change.
| Zone | Where | 7 p.m. Eastern is | Online support hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern time | Almost all of Quebec, Montréal to Gaspé and Saguenay | 7 p.m. | 9 a.m. to midnight |
| Atlantic time | The Magdalen Islands | 8 p.m. | 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. |
| Atlantic, UTC−4 all year | The Lower North Shore, Kegaska to Blanc-Sablon (no clock change) | 8 p.m. (7 p.m. in summer) | 10 a.m. to 1 a.m. (9 a.m. to midnight in summer) |
Cities and regions
Montréal and Laval. Plex flats, condos and a lot of bilingual homes. The IPTV Montréal guide deals with Wi-Fi in long flats and the community channel groups the city asks about.
Québec City and Lévis. Mostly French-only households, stone houses in Vieux-Québec and post-war bungalows in the suburbs. Setting up IPTV in Québec City goes through each kind of house.
Gatineau. Plenty of people cross a bridge to work in Ottawa, and the local group for the two cities carries news from both banks.
Sherbrooke. With Université de Sherbrooke and Bishop's in Lennoxville, many student flats have internet included in the rent. A shared line like that can look fine at noon and crawl at 9 p.m., so test it in the evening.
Trois-Rivières. Cogeco's home town, with Bell and Vidéotron as the other wired lines. The line is rarely the weak spot here; an older Smart TV with no app store often is, and a streaming stick fixes it.
Saguenay. Chicoutimi, Jonquière and La Baie all sit inside it. In smaller towns around the region the cable may be the old DERYTelecom network, now owned by Cogeco; for IPTV it behaves like any cable line.
Rimouski. Québec-Téléphone started around here, so Telus is the phone company and sells fibre, with Cogeco cable as the other wired choice. For a house out on a rang road, read the next section.
Rural and chalet
A chalet in the Laurentians or the Eastern Townships can have a better line than you'd guess, or nothing worth streaming on. In village centres such as Saint-Sauveur and Magog, Cogeco cable is often on the street. The Opération haute vitesse program paid for fibre along many rural roads in recent years, much of it built by Xplore in the Pontiac, the Papineau, the Vallée-de-la-Gatineau and around La Tuque. Up a private chemin by a lake, it's usually Xplore fixed wireless or a Starlink dish.
Before counting on it for a winter of hockey, check the data cap: HD runs through roughly 2 to 3 GB an hour, which a ski week eats quickly. A dish under fresh snow or behind a stand of spruce will cut out until someone clears it. And the first Friday of the construction holiday, when every chalet on the lake comes online, is the real test: bring a streaming stick and start the free 24-hour trial the night you arrive.
Some lake roads still can't hold 10 Mbps after supper. On those, IPTV will freeze, and waiting for fibre beats paying for a plan you can't watch.
En français
French news, sports, kids' shows and variety come in the Full Channels package, so choose that one at checkout; English Channels Only leaves the French groups out. Most player apps follow the device's language, so switching a Fire TV or Smart TV to French changes the app's menus too, while program titles in the guide come from each channel's own listings. The menu path for each brand of TV is in our French setup guide, device steps are in the setup guides, and online support answers in French or English, 7 days a week, 9 a.m. to midnight (Eastern Time).
Plans
Same channels on every plan, priced in CAD and paid by Interac e-Transfer. Try it free for 24 hours first.
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$15.99 per month
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$10.00 per month Save 37%
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$7.50 per month Save 53%
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All 4 plan lengths and the price of extra screens are on the IPTV subscription page.
Next door
FAQ
Full Channels. It has the French news, sports, kids' and variety groups along with everything else. English Channels Only is a shorter list without them.
Yes, once the TV or stick is set to Atlantic time (Halifax). The app reads the clock from the device, so the listings then match island time.
Yes. Telus fibre in Rimouski or Sept-Îles is plenty, and so is Cogeco or Vidéotron cable. You keep your internet plan and need a steady 10 Mbps or so per HD screen.
Often, if the signal stays steady in the evening and the data allowance can take 2 to 3 GB per hour of HD. Run the speed test from the chalet TV on a Friday night before you decide.
Yes. The local group for Ottawa and Gatineau has the news from both sides of the river, in French and English.
Set the TV to French, start the free 24-hour trial on a hockey night, and see how your line and your Wi-Fi hold up before you choose a plan.
