Rogers announces online TV on demand

[Rob2687]

OnScreen Media Summit: Rogers To Launch 'TV Everywhere' In November

Canadian Cable Operator to Offer 2.3 Million Subs Content from 15 Networks

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 10/21/2009 4:43:50 PM

New York — Rogers Communications, Canada's largest cable operator, will launch an online on-demand service with 15 network partners on Nov. 17, senior vice president David Purdy said on a panel at the B&C/Multichannel News OnScreen Media Summit here Wednesday.

The Rogers On-Demand Online service, to be available for no additional charge to the operator's 2.3 million cable subscribers, will include content from Rogers-owned broadcaster Citytv and Rogers Sportsnet, as well as A&E, Bio and G4 Canada, Purdy said.

"We were trying to figure out how we could have an online video extension to our VOD product," he said.

Eventually, he added, Rogers -- which is also the No. 1 Canadian wireless carrier -- will also provide content to mobile devices: "It's truly going to be ‘TV everywhere' in time."

TV Everywhere panelThe Rogers service will be available from the MSO's own portal and will be authenticated using a subscriber's cable modem. "The beauty of this is, we can authenticate based on a customer's modem... and we know if you are eligible to receive Discovery Channel," he said.

Andy Heller, vice chairman of Turner Broadcasting System, said his company has been working on a system that allows subscribers to access "TV Everywhere" content from programmers' sites, as well as distributors' own portals.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/365939...In_November.php

They are having an event right now to announce this service but here's what I can gather from Twitter.

Access for Rogers cable and wireless customers.

500kbps or 1mbps stream.

1 hour video equals about 500MB of your bit cap.

Ad supported.

Integration with set tops (Xbox, PS3) coming in 2010.

Geoblocked to Canada only.

Launch date Nov. 30

http://rogersondemand.com/

It will be interesting to see how this turns out. Some people may choose to use this rather than p2p/file sharing stuff but then again why waste your monthly bit cap on something you already get on cable TV. The response so far seems pretty negative.

[Denis W. Veteran]

Sounds like a good idea, but waive the bandwidth costs just for that site alone (it has to be possible somehow) and it'll be great.

Would be great if they can also find some way to integrate this into say Windows Media Center, like how Sky TV in the UK does for WMC.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

That's cool, at least it is coming to xbox 360. But 500MB? Really... That's a lot of bandwidth

[Lewism]

Sounds like a good idea, but waive the bandwidth costs just for that site alone (it has to be possible somehow) and it'll be great.

Yeah it is possible but they don't want to. This way they can rip you off with cable TV and internet, since you will continue to use both services.

[Ridlas]

Limited bandwidth FTL

[Rob2687]

I don't know how accurate that is. It's just a figure some guy is throwing around on Twitter. I doubt they will waive the bandwidth counter but this service is available no matter what ISP you're on. From what I can tell is available for Rogers Cable TV and Wireless subscribers.

There is a pretty limited selection of channels right now but they plan to add more on a weekly basis. City, YTV, Treehouse, G4, NFB, Big 10, Aux, Bio, Bite, Galaxie, OLN, Sportsnet, Superchannel, Teletoon.

Search for the #rodo tag on twitter.

[TruckWEB]

In the mean time, I'm still waiting for more HD channel with Videotron and I can probably forget about Videotron On Demand....

For the TV (and I mean TV only), BELL ExpressVu is looking better and better everyday....

[jay2010]

Rob2687

There is a few things to keep in mind with this service.

1)Your computer can act as another tv yes it may not be perfect but you still will get a fair amount of channels with out having to get another box or tv.

2)Canadians like there content online atleast from what i have been reading.Look at ctv.ca/global people use those services.Rogers online i do think will aslo appeal to alot of people.

3)If you away with in canada you can access rogers online which may aslo appeal to some people.

4)As for people beeing negative yes some are but there is aslo a fair amount of postive comments.

5)Another thing is this will be open to all rogers/fido customers so people who may not be able to afford basic cable or want to do something else with there money.Well if there a rogers customer they will have access to what really equals basic tv for no charge.