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| Type | Subsidiary of Rogers Communications |
|---|---|
| Industry | Cable Services |
| Founded | Brampton, Ontario (1967) |
| Headquarters | Toronto, Ontario |
| Key people | Edward Rogers III - President Michael A. Adams - COO |
| Products | Cable Television Broadband Internet Access |
| Revenue |  $1.95 billion CAD |
| Operating income | $708 million CAD |
| Owner(s) | Rogers Communications |
| Employees | 5,922 (2004) |
| Website | www.rogers.com |
Rogers Cable Inc., a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc., is Canada's largest cable television service provider with about 2.25 million television customers, and over 930,000 Internet subscribers, in Manitoba, Southern & Eastern Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador.
The company's digital cable service is branded as Rogers Personal TV.
Contents |
History[edit]
Rogers was one of the first cable-system operators in Canada, having secured licences covering much of the then city of Toronto in the mid-1960s. One of the first important acquisitions was in 1979, when Ted Rogers purchased a controlling interest in Canadian Cablesystems (CCL), which operated cable companies across Ontario, including the then City of North York, Oshawa/Whitby, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, Cambridge, Brantford, and Newmarket, and joined the CCL properties with his cable interests. In 1980, Rogers purchased Premier Cable, which controlled the system in Vancouver, parts of Ontario, and had investments in Irish cable companies in Dublin, Galway and Waterford. In 1986 Rogers sold their shares of Irish companies to the Irish state broadcaster (RTÉ) and state telecoms company (Eircom), these cable companies are now part of the UPC Ireland network. Rogers continued to buy other operators, the largest such acquisition came with Rogers' 1994 acquisition of Maclean-Hunter, at that time also among the largest cable operators. Through its acquisition of Maclean-Hunter, Rogers has also briefly owned cable systems in the United States, which it promptly sold to Comcast in 1994. In 2008, Rogers announced a takeover offer for Aurora Cable, a cable service provider in York Region, Ontario (pending approval by Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC)).[1]
1981- Rogers starts to operate in U.S. cable market. Wins franchises in Orange County, California, Minneapolis, and Portland and purchases the cable system in San Antonio
February 1, 1983- First Choice Pay Per View was offered throughout the Rogers Cablesystem Network.
1989- Rogers sells U.S. cable assets for over $1 billion profit and invests profits in wireless sector. Paragon Cable, owned by Houston Industries, became the largest cable provider in Minnesota with 177,100 subscribers in the Twin Cities and South Central Minnesota. Due to the Rogers United States acquisition Paragon expanded to serve other states, such as California, Oregon, Florida and Texas.
Paragon Cable acquired the United States version of First Choice PPV which was similar to the First Choice Pay Per View offerings in Canada.
Paragon Cable still aired the First Choice Pay Per View network until the late 1990s when Time Warner would buy the assets of Houston Industries, who owned and operated Paragon Cablesystems.
Rogers partners with Canadian Pacific in CNCP (later renamed Unitel) and enters the long distance telephony market in 1992 after a historic CRTC victory.
The Rogers Telefund is established to contribute to the production of quality independent Canadian television programming.
Management[edit]
- Nadir Mohamed, C.A. - President and Chief Operating Officer Communications Group
- Edward Rogers III - President Rogers Cable Inc.
- Michael A. Adams - Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer
Canadian cable territories[edit]
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Rogers Cable's territories now consist of: most larger communities in Newfoundland and Labrador, virtually the whole of New Brunswick, selected areas of eastern Quebec near the New Brunswick border (including Carleton-sur-Mer), and, in Ontario: nearly all of the Toronto area as well as the areas of Ottawa, London, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Barrie. With the Rogers takeover of Aurora Cable Internet, Aurora, Ontario, along with most areas in York Region will also be added in the Canadian cable territories area.
Over the years, and at various times, Rogers has owned all or part of various cable operators serving areas across Canada, including Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Northern Ontario, and the Hamilton area. All of the systems in Western Canada were traded to Shaw Communications in late 2000 in exchange for that company's assets in Ontario and New Brunswick, and many of the others were sold to Cogeco.
Rogers also provides broadband Internet access, co-marketed with Yahoo!. The company employs traffic shaping and has been widely criticized for this.
Competitors[edit]
Rogers' main competitors are the satellite television provider Bell TV; and the two main television companies controlled by Shaw Communications: Shaw Cable, and Shaw Direct (Satellite). Shaw Cable has requisitioned and traded contested territory, leading to a lack of direct competition between Shaw Cable and Rogers Cable.
Other investments[edit]
CPAC[edit]
Through Rogers Cable Inc., Rogers holds a majority interest (41.4%) in CPAC, a national public affairs and politics cable channel based in Ottawa, that consists of both an English and French language feeds. CPAC's main programming consists of live and delayed coverage of the House of Commons, and the Senate.
Retail stores[edit]
Rogers Plus, Canada's largest domestically owned chain of video stores, operates as a subsidiary of Rogers Cable. It launched as Rogers Video in 1988, after which it grew by acquiring smaller chains and winning multiple awards. Rogers Video and Rogers Wireless stores were all renamed to Rogers Plus in 2007. There was less emphasis on rentals, although the chain's video stores often featured a developed movie reel artwork with pictures of people and words such as "movies" and "games".
One of its biggest competitors was Blockbuster Video. In a move similar to Rogers, Blockbuster partnered with Wind Mobile to sell mobile telephony and mobile broadband services where available, either in prepaid-only packages sold at the counter or in a full service "store in a store". Blockbuster's Canadian operations went bankrupt and closed its doors by the end of 2011. Wind relocated its stores to be near the old Blockbuster locations.
After 23 years in business, Rogers Plus discontinued movie and game rentals at its stores. Only Rogers' telecom services will be sold at Rogers Plus stores.
Controversy[edit]
Negative option billing[edit]
In the beginning of 1995, Rogers along with several other cable companies, added a number of new cable channels under a negative option billing plan. Subscribers opting out of paying for the new channels stood to lose much of their existing specialty channel programming. The participating cable companies were hit by both regulatory and public opinion backlash and ultimately were forced to split the negative-option channels into two separately-purchasable blocks, a move which Rogers had initially opposed as "not technologically feasible".
Dropping of WPBS, WQLN[edit]
In July 2009, Rogers Cable announced that on August 18, 2009, they will be replacing PBS members WQLN of Erie, Pennsylvania[2] and WPBS-TV of Watertown, New York[3] on its London and Ottawa systems, respectively, with Detroit, Michigan's PBS station, WTVS. A representative for Rogers said that they were replacing WQLN and WPBS for WTVS, as viewers wanted "a feed that has a higher-quality reception."[3] WQLN and WPBS, however, had shown great concern for Rogers' move, as these are the largest cities in the stations' respective coverage areas and much of their pledges come from Rogers viewers. In addition, both stations first heard of the discontinuance not by Rogers, but by their loyal viewers.
On July 30, 2009, it was announced that Rogers will keep WPBS[4][5] and WQLN[6] on its systems, after both stations announced a fibre-based connection with Rogers. Additional funds will be allocated to complete the transition; while WQLN announced that they will spend $55,000 to provide a connection,[6] WPBS agreed with Rogers not to disclose the cost of the fibre-optic signal for their own station.[5]
Mountain Cablevision[edit]
On September 9, 2009, Rogers Cable filed a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent Shaw Cable from acquiring Mountain Cablevision of Hamilton, Ontario,[7] on the basis that Rogers and Shaw had effectively agreed to divide the country in half, Rogers in the east and Shaw in the west. This suit was defeated on competitive grounds and the Shaw acquisition allowed to proceed.
In 2013, Rogers announced it was going to purchase what was Mountain Cable to bring it under the Rogers wing. (pending CRTC approval)
Quick Start Menu[edit]
In late January 2010, Rogers Cable launched a quick start guide widely panned as lacking useful features and causing customers to perform extra, unnecessary work to change channels.[8]
In February 2012, Rogers launched a new IPG with Whole Room PVR for its x642 model devices.
References[edit]
- ^ Newswire 13 Feb 2008
- ^ London Free Press: "Loss of London viewers could sink Erie station", 7/22/2009.
- ^ a b "WPBS of New York to disappear from Ottawa TV". CBC News. July 16, 2009. Retrieved July 20, 2009.
- ^ Ottawa Citizen: "PBS Watertown wins reprieve from Rogers", 7/30/2009.
- ^ a b http://watertowndailytimes.com/article/20090731/NEWS03/307319981
- ^ a b London Free Press: "Rogers retains PBS affiliate WQLN", 7/31/2009.
- ^ Rogers sues to block Shaw's Ontario cable buy, CBC News, September 10, 2009
- ^ http://www.digitalhome.ca/2010/01/rogers-cable-customers-upset-about-new-quickstart-menu/
External links[edit]
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