Proud of Our Past – Even More Excited About Our Future!

Since its inception in 1967 Hospitality Network has grown to become Canada’s leading provider of entertainment and communication services in the Canadian healthcare market. Hospitality Network maintains a dominant market share of the hospital market serving more than 40,000 beds in over 230 hospitals across Canada. Hospitality Network has also created a unique niche in the seniors care home market becoming the leading provider of managed TV programming and telephone services to over 19,000 suites in 170 homes across Canada.

As an industry leader Hospitality Network has been directly involved in the design and development of numerous new innovative TV products and services, including interactive TV and phone rental systems, automated closed circuit education delivery systems and new flat screen LCD TV products, all designed exclusively for use in the healthcare marketplace.

When patient TV was first introduced into Canadian Hospitals, it was an American product that was deployed, but one that utilized a single low-voltage power supply that plugged into the electrical outlet at each bedside. Increasingly, as electrical outlets were being required for medical purposes, access to these electrical outlets became restricted for medical use only. At that time, a small Canadian owned company called Sterivision, pioneered and developed the central low-voltage system, thus eliminating the need to use electrical outlets in the patient environment.

The Sterivision system, now Hospitality Network’s, soon became the standard for all hospitals. And the business model whereby Sterivision would assume the entire capital cost for the system and TV installation, while also sharing with the hospital a portion of the collected revenue, also became the standard. Hospitals saw the opportunity to enhance patient comfort as well as the new revenue potential.

In 1982 and working with our hospital partners, Sterivision pioneered an automated education programming delivery system that would play BETA recorded tapes through the Sterivision system on select channels. To support the delivery of programming to the patients, TVs were installed at each bedside. Increasingly, hospitals viewed the Sterivision System as a pathway to the bedside and today’s systems utilize this concept.

During this time, there was increasing competition into the healthcare sector as more companies viewed their high-tech solutions as viable in a healthcare setting. Two key players emerged: TeleHealth Services and Hospitality Network (a subsidiary of SaskTel) – both with a solid history of providing quality technology and customer service in the industry. In order to fully realize the benefits of focusing on developing new and better products for the hospital market, these two players joined forces and in 2000, TeleHealth Services became Hospitality Network.

In 2002 Hospitality Network entered the seniors care home market providing resident TV and telephone rental services as well as telephone services to staff in the homes. The Hospitality Network solution included a complete telephone system design, installation and on-going maintenance, network access design and management, call management services, and an aggressive Long Distance plan.

Hospitality Network continued to evolve its hospital patient TV experience by developing and introducing a fully automated solution in 2006 that would enable patient self-activation 24/7 supported by a contact center by dialing a 4 digit hospital extension. This patient self-activation capability improved the patient satisfaction and reduced the risk of infection by eliminating the human interaction.

In 2008 Hospitality Network signed an agreement with Canada’s 2nd largest care home operator to manage the cable television services in all of their homes, positioning Hospitality Network as the leading provider of this unique solution.

In earlier 2011, SaskTel sold Hospitality Network to funds under management by PFM Capital Inc. including the SaskWorks Venture Fund and APEX Investment LP, with minority shareholders consisting of the Company’s executive, and a Founder’s Group.

In August of 2011, Hospitality Network continued their growth in the Canadian Healthcare market when they completed an accretive acquisition of HTV, a company offering patient entertainment services to hospitals in Ontario, BC and Manitoba.

Combined with over 40 years of history in providing hospitals with patient entertainment & education systems, Hospitality Network continues to develop and source new technology that will meet the ever increasing needs of hospitals; seniors care home facilities, and their patients and residents. We’re proud of our past, but even more excited about our future!