by jon » Sun Dec 17, 2006 4:53 pm
Ted Rogers single-handedly gives the entire Canadian cable industry a bad name. His "you can't tell me what to do" speeches are legendary, and usually aimed at the CRTC. When digital cable first came out, he almost killed the channel owners by charging double what Shaw did for each channel and package.
Shaw, of course, is not perfect, still refusing to carry TVLand, even though it was #1 in number of subscribers among the new cable channels when they first came out. Rogers, of course, carried it.
The best example of Ted's speeches was one where he said that the Technology was not available to allow other ISPs to provide broadband Internet off Rogers network, but the Technology was there for Rogers to provide broadband to its own customers by the hundreds of thousands. Less than a year later, an independent cable company in Timmins or Tillsonburg or someplace like that had an ISP using its network.
And that it is ancient history. That speech was made shortly after the CRTC re-iterated its previous order to allow competitors to use cable company and telco backbones to provide high-speed Internet service. I am not aware of any other cable company, besides the one in small town Ontario T-town in the late 1990s, that has yet allowed an ISP to offer broadband over their cable backbone.
One thing I am pleased to see Rogers offer is wireless Internet for $50/month, unlimited usage, available in (and travelling through) about 20 cities in Canada. Something like 1.5Mbps to you and 256Kbps to them. Not blazing, but a lot faster than any of the "wired" High Speed Lite offerings of telcos and cable companies.
Finally, as for ExpressVu, Bell has repeated offered it to Shaw for $1, and Shaw keeps saying the price is too high. And they are probably right, as they would inherit the debt. Shaw also has an ulterior motive, as they have been petitioning the CRTC to have cable TV deregulated because of "all" the competition from satellite TV. They already own one of the two players, Star Choice, so cable/satellite TV would arguably be a monopoly again if Shaw got ExpressVu.
One final interesting, but unpublicized point: both Canadian satellite TV companies have dropped out of the Internet market, forcing the CRTC to allow two U.S. (including Hughes) satellite Internet providers to sell to Canadians. I believe that one or both of the U.S. companies offers two way satellite Internet, instead of the stupid dial-up connection from you to them that ExpressVu and StarChoice used to force you to use.
And, finally, Shaw made a huge deal about being the first cable or satellite TV company in Canada to offer TCM (November 2005 debut, as I recall). They recently added AMC, too. Any idea, ADG, if Rogers beat Shaw to introducing TCM?
One question: does TCM offer a Hi-Def service in the U.S.? And/or are there any plans to offer one in Canada?