Rogers Claims Successful First Month for its "TV Everywhere" Service, Unveils Roadmap

Canadian cable MSO, Rogers Communications, is claiming that Rogers On Demand Online Beta, its implementation of the "TV Everywhere" distribution model, is proving popular with its subscribers (note: the "TV Everywhere" distribution model seeks, via authentication technology, to make programming that pay-TV customers have already paid for through their cable, satellite or IPTV subscriptions available to those customers on multiple Web sites and platforms, and thus aims to head off the threat posed to pay-TV services by the increasing availability of over-the-top programming--for some background on TV Everywhere, see the articles published on itvt.com, April 30th, May 14th, June 25th and July 15th).

While TV Everywhere services are ultimately envisioned as making programming available to authenticated pay-TV subscribers on multiple Web sites and platforms, Rogers' initial implementation of TV Everywhere makes programs available only on a dedicated site (http://www.rogersondemand.com)--though the MSO has previously revealed plans to launch TV Everywhere support on smartphones and games consoles. According to the MSO, over 46,000 people have registered on the site for Rogers On Demand Online since the service's launch in late November, and the site generated close to 2 million page views in December. "With over 1.8 million Rogers On Demand Online page views in just over one month, Canadians are telling us they are ready to take TV beyond the box and have already made Rogers On Demand Online a great beta-launch success," David Purdy, Rogers' VP of video product management, said in a prepared statement. "We're committed to continually adding new content and partners, and given the great feedback we've been receiving, Rogers will be unveiling new features and functionality including live streaming, social networking and wireless access features in the near future."

Rogers On Demand Online can be accessed at no additional charge by Rogers Cable, Rogers Wireless, Rogers Hi Speed Internet and Rogers Home Phone subscribers from any broadband Internet connection across Canada. The service launched with around 20 content partners and around 1,000 hours of content. However, Rogers says that since then it has signed content agreements for the service with some new partners, including Canadian film distributor, Alliance Films, and Ride Guide Productions (produces a weekly series on snowboarding, free-skiing and mountain bike riding); and has also added new content from such partners as Global Television, History Television and Showcase, as well as from its own programming arm. The MSO claims that the service now has over 1,500 hours of content.

Rogers says that it will make various enhancements to Rogers On Demand Online in the coming months, including live streaming, user ratings and comments, playlists, recommendation functions, navigation enhancements, upgraded search, and a preview channel for non-Rogers subscribers.