Think Forward » Cable

Rogers on Demand Online – Moving the TV experience online

brians — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 20:45:40 +0000

This week I got a preview code for a new product Rogers was launching, Rogers on Demand Online. (the same week they laid off a significant number of middle managers). They are working well to move the TV experience online, but could do better in moving the online experience to TV.

The concept is to take the On Demand experience which Rogers has on their cable systems (which often crashes my box) and move it online. My friend Ben Lucier has done a great job summarizing the experience and I’d agree with almost all his impressions of the system.

It’s got a lot of the features that I have on my on-demand box on my TV – so simulates that experience well. Where I think it misses the mark is moving the online experience to TV. Let me point out a few examples of ways the system could combine the online experience with the TV experience to make the system truely kick-ass, as well as solve some security issues.

One of the things that caught my eye in the list of TV shows is the category “Last Chance”. In the online world, there’s no such thing as Last Chance. If you make a show available, why wouldn’t it be available forever? This is the world of the long tail – and users expect to find everything from the just released, to an old episode of Sesame Street from 15 years ago, if you plan on bringing it to the system.

The other feature I thought could improve the experience, and make it more like my online experience is to allow comments and a social aspect. The shows are buit into a screen which shows some other relevant and related content below, but why not let the users get involved and comment on the show itself. It might not have to appear directly (I wouldn’t want to read something which gives away the surprise ending) but having a button to comment on and interact with other watchers of the show would make me feel more involved.

Connected to this was my thought: “Hey, I should give my password out to a bunch of people and let them share in my on-demand experience.” It would seem to present a problem for Rogers if they are only going to make this available to Rogers subscribers. But the easy way around that problem is to build a set of social features into the site, or even connect it with a FaceBook login. The more social features they build in the less likely users will want to share their accounts, because the account will become part of them. The more personal info I attach to the account, the less likely I’m going to share the account, in the same way I’d never share my FaceBook account with a friend.

All in all, it’s a great move forward for Rogers. This morning I watched part of a West Wing episode on my Rocket Stick (yes, it’s working now) and both that product and this shows that Rogers is ready and willing to cannibalize it’s current products and customers for the sake of new technology. They have become more adept at this in recent years – willing to take the risk. It’s impressive and can show how nimble this behemoth still is.

Update: The Rogers on Demand Twitter folks (yes, Rogers is rocking the social media these day with twitter people) pointed me to this site which shows some of the upcoming features. Upcoming features are what they say they are – upcoming. But at least they are thinking about it….

The Canwest/Globalive Ownership Dilemma

brians — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 02:36:48 +0000

Globalive, the wireless company launching soon under the brand name Wind Mobile, has been under some attack by the other carriers for it’s ownership structure. With significant investment by Orescom out of Egypt, our telecom and media ownership restrictions are coming under some scrutiny. The issue has become more complex for the CRTC because of a decision they made last year allowing Canwest, with a large investment from Goldman Sachs, to purchase specialty provide Alliance Atlantis.
Canada has restrictions and rules on foreign ownership of media and telecom companies. The essential rule (with a number of variations) is that no more than 20% of the voting shares of company may be owned by foreign entities, and ‘control’ must remain with Canadians. The restrictions apply to both telecoms and media companies equally, despite the differing goals of law within each vertical.
When the Asper family, the majority owners of Canwest, bid to purchase Alliance Atlantis in early 2007 they couldn’t raise enough money in Canada, so they solicited some help from New York bank Goldman Sachs, who loaned the company money (or the Aspers directly, or a subsidiary company – it is not clear) so they could complete the purchase. The CRTC decided at the time that the deal was kosher, likely looking both the media consolidation angle, as well as from a foreign ownership perspective.
Globalive, a feisty Canadian telecom startup, which had been chipping away in the Canadian telecom space for quite some time and made their big mark purchasing Yak Communications, decided they wanted to be in the running for last year’s spectrum auction. Looking for investors they found Orescom, another feisty and entrepreneurial company with a number of global wireless investments, based out of Egypt. Orescom decided Globalive, and its CEO Anthony Lacavera was the company in Canada to back and grow their international wireless investment portfolio.
Before the spectrum auction the CRTC (actually Industry Canada, which runs the auction process) requires quite minimal evidence that the ownership of the companies bidding do, in fact, abide by the ownership rules. They did require letters of credit ensuring that companies bidding could pay their bills after the bidding was complete. Globalive obviously satisfied these conditions.
Now that the bidding is complete and the specifics on Globalive’s ownership structure is still not clear, the other carriers are calling foul. Building a large Canadian wireless carrier is not cheap. None of the major Canadian investors (Teachers, CPPI, etc.) threw their money behind Globalive. Orescom is the big supporter and believes in the potential of the Canadian market, especially when combined with their other investments.
The CRTC has backed themselves into a corner. By allowing the Goldman Sachs investment in Canwest to go through, they are now tied to stick by the structure. Making an investment that large in Canwest obviously gives Goldman ‘control’ over the investment, if not on paper, but certainly de facto control. Orescom is likely in the same position with Globalive. If they aren’t, they can just ask the CRTC how that deal went through and mimic the structure.
If the other carriers wanted to complain about the ownership structure they should have said something at the time of the Canwest deal. That’s what set the precedent. But they wouldn’t have, because, in Canada, it’s not comfortable disturbing the family compact.
The CRTC is now compelled to approve the deal. The variations on ownership structure has become so convoluted that perhaps it’s time to reexamine the rules. We live in a global economy, and telecom, much more than media, is an increasingly global business. Isolating Canada from the ownership and innovation of foreign companies just limits the technology and economies of scale we could leverage to bring down our wireless and telecom prices.

RIP Mountain Cable – Welcome Shaw

brians — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 01:40:45 +0000

There aren’t many independent cable companies left in Canada. Most of the small ones have been scooped up by Rogers, Shaw, Cogeco and Videotron, the four remainders. Last Thursday Shaw cable reached across the expanse of Canada and picked up one of of the the juiciest prizes, Mountain Cable, which ran the cable operations on the highlands part of Hamilton, as well as in many of the local towns nearby. The remainder of Hamilton, the downtown core, was ‘owned’ by Cogeco.

Mountain Cable was founded and owned by the Boris Family. About 5 years ago they took a different tack and hired John Piercy, an ex-AllStream and Bell executive to build a voice business. John looked back to his old company and hired Allstream to assist in building a first class home phone service. The success showed in the numbers. Upon the sale Mountain Cable had 27,000 voice customers out of 41,000 cable customers, and impressive 65% penetration rate – all those customers being a loss to Bell’s local service.

Mountain Cable was known for having excellent customer service. Friends who lived in the area confirm this. It’s rare when you talk to someone who really says “I love my cable company”. I certainly can’t say that in Toronto.

John has moved on to his next venture. Look out for Atria Networks – a combination of the local utility telecom companies which was consolidated and had an investment by Birch Hill Equity Partners, TD’s private equity arm. Good luck John.

As for Shaw’s new investment, one could argue that running a cable network a distance from the core business could be challenging. But Shaw has Big Pipe, and can connect the new service to their old network easily. Locals must be wondering whether the customer service will remain. Other observers might wonder whether Shaw will deal the subscribers to Rogers or Cogeco.