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July 22, 2020 11:46 am  #1


Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

It's not the same thing as Bell's streaming service but it's too late for Rogers to launch a credible competitor with so many rights tied up with Crave. So they're trying something else to siphon more money from your wallet.

Rogers launches new SmartStream service for cord-cutting internet subscribers

 

July 22, 2020 12:00 pm  #2


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

Rogers should team up with Shaw for this one. 
It would allow easy access to a "Peacock Canada" or whatever the heck is going on over at Shaw... 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 22, 2020 2:39 pm  #3


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

Rogers and Shaw did partner on an effort about 10 years back... and then one of the parties quickly stepped back.  Show me or Showmi  ???  something like that...  VOD ???

iirc, it was Rogers (?)  that stepped away.  The service had was about a year old, and they felt it was not getting much interest among viewers/subscribers...   or something like that....

 

July 22, 2020 3:00 pm  #4


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

Glen Warren wrote:

Rogers and Shaw did partner on an effort about 10 years back... and then one of the parties quickly stepped back.  Show me or Showmi  ???  something like that...  VOD ???

iirc, it was Rogers (?)  that stepped away.  The service had was about a year old, and they felt it was not getting much interest among viewers/subscribers...   or something like that....

Yes.
Plus also last time around there was no hook up with Amazon or anyone else either.  
& It's not just movies. It's news content.
Shaw & Amazon might not want City (Citynews) content added to the current choices available (Global News) on Amazon Prime. 

The $5 fee may be more intended to steer people to CityNews content, not Global news, so I see why my opinion can indeed be a problem in today's situation vs yesterday's Shomi. 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

July 23, 2020 2:51 pm  #5


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

sounds more like a roku or amazon fire stick streaming device

Last edited by cash (July 23, 2020 2:53 pm)

 

July 23, 2020 3:46 pm  #6


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

Shomii was shutdown in November 2016 which is less than 4 years ago.  Of course, in the age of Trump and COVID-19, it just seems like 10 years ago.


- Not an industry person.  Just a guy with a love of Toronto radio. 
 

July 23, 2020 4:09 pm  #7


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

I'm was never a huge fan of Ted Rogers or his company, but I will give him this - he had the ability to see into the future as far as melding business and technology were concerned. I'm convinced that if he had been alive at the time, he never would have let Shomi be shut down, because he likely would have had that rare ability to see that streaming was the next big thing.

He did it with cable. He did with cell phones. And he did it with the Internet. Very often, a step ahead.

And yes, it would have lost money in the first few years. But he wasn't always averse to that. The story goes that when CFTR was looking to switch from Top 40 to something else because of the migration to FM, someone (I think it might have been the late Leslie Sole) came into his office and began his pitch for an all-news format this way. "How would you like to lose $5 million?"

Not only did Rogers not throw him out of his office, he offered him a chair and said, "Tell me more." And today, 680 is one of the AM stations that still commands respectable ratings (and profits) in this market. 

I think Rogers (the company) made a big mistake cutting their losses, even with Shaw pulling out. Bell now has the Canadian market to itself and has gobbled up all the rights to most of the big ticket programming. So even if Rogers wanted to get back in the arena, it would either have to outbid Crave when the time comes or start from scratch. And that may well make the $5 million loss from CFTR's long-ago start-up seem like loose change. 

     Thread Starter
 

July 23, 2020 9:14 pm  #8


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

I don't get it. You're paying $5/month just for content aggregation?  

RadioActive wrote:

I'm was never a huge fan of Ted Rogers or his company, but I will give him this - he had the ability to see into the future as far as melding business and technology were concerned. I'm convinced that if he had been alive at the time, he never would have let Shomi be shut down, because he likely would have had that rare ability to see that streaming was the next big thing.

=12pxHe did it with cable. He did with cell phones. And he did it with the Internet. Very often, a step ahead.

I'm not so sure of that. This isn't a traditional telecommunications battle. It's a content war that uses pre-existing telecommunications infrastructures. There's no proprietary technology that gives one SVOD service a benefit over the other. The costs are so low that people have subscriptions to multiple services. There's no logistical nightmares comparable to cell tower coverage and cable rollout that guarantees you regional revenue. There are no regulatory bodies keeping foreign entities away. 

 

July 23, 2020 9:41 pm  #9


Re: Rogers' "Sort-Of But Not Really" Answer To Crave

My point was that Shomi had some exclusive content when it first launched, but ceded it all over to Bell when the plug was pulled. My guess was that Ted Rogers would have kept it going even if Shaw pulled out and it was losing money for a while, because he would have surmised that it might turn around some day.

We'll never know, of course, but I suspect Rogers (the company) is not happy that they don't have a lot of skin in the streaming game these days. 

     Thread Starter