Canada seems to be heading for a full TV Everywhere web video existence, even as the USA takes a long hard look at whether or not TV Everywhere is a form of anti-trust.
Faultline has made no secret of its opinion that TV Everywhere is a bad thing. Cable TV companies, who’s biggest cost is sustaining and updating the technology on a cable TV hybrid fiber co-ax network, and who collectively dominate pay TV in the US to the tune of some 65% or so of US homes, could be automatically allowed to shift their dominance from their own networks to the internet. Using one almost monopoly to create another and in the process killing all new internet business models associated with video. You may not agree, but most people can see that TV Everywhere simply prolongs the existence of cable TV operators beyond their realistic life and at the very least extends the operator’s profitability unnaturally.
But in Canada the authorities have been slow to question the concept, and the operators have been fast off the market. Initially Bell Canada brought out a service through the Online TV button on its own portal, called TMN Online, copying the concept from the US, pioneered by Time Warner Cable and taken up by Comcast, which is that programming shown on cable TV can be viewed for free by subscribers. That went live last October.
Now Rogers, one of the first companies in the world to get to a full quadruple play, has added a second TV Everywhere service in Canada calling it Rogers On Demand Online or RODO. The service comes with new content and enhanced social tools and video, using live streaming over the internet.
It has been in beta for over six months and has added the social features whereby comments about programs can be shared with friends and family, based on comments made in beta feedback.
The beta also led to the addition of playlists and HD viewing and has amassed around 1,500 hours of video available at start, including web-exclusive live streaming of concerts and sporting events as well as The Cineplex Channel featuring movie trailers.
The interesting thing is that Rogers is opening this TV Everywhere service to non-Rogers customers as well, who can see the free content, though not the premium stuff. Clearly it is being used both as a marketing pull and will eventually bring in advertising on the free area. It is, however, limited to people in Canada.