Rogers includes NHL streaming, Shomi with new Internet packages

On Wednesday Rogers Communications Inc. announced a new brand of broadband Internet, Ignite, that comes bundled with subscriptions to two of Rogers' online video-streaming services. The company said in a press release the new Internet packages will include Shomi, a joint streaming service owned with Shaw Communications Inc. that features movies and television series, and Rogers' own NHL GameCentre Live for hockey games. Individually, GameCentre costs $200 a season and Shomi is $8.99 a month. On its website, Rogers specifies that Shomi would be available for two years to Ignite subscribers and GameCentre would be provided for the rest of the current National Hockey League season and next season. Details and prices vary slightly for different markets. Ignite will be available in parts of Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland. In Ontario, packages start with a 60 Mbps download speed and data cap of 200 GB a month for $74.99 a month, Rogers says on its website. A 100 Mbps version goes for $84.99 a month and the 250 Mbps package costs $94.99, both of which include unlimited data. All Ignite packages in Ontario include a $25-per-month discount for the first three months, and require one-time installation and activation fees of about $65. "We've redesigned our plans to give our customers unlimited usage options with consistent, reliable speeds so they can surf more, stream more and share more without worrying about going over their limit or getting a spotty connection," Robert Goodman, senior director of Internet product management for Rogers, said in the company's press release. Rogers said the Ignite packages come with what it calls a Rocket WiFi modem, which it says has a further signal reach than other modems. It said in a separate news release Wednesday that independent testing by SamKnows Ltd. found Rogers' Internet service achieves 100 per cent or more of its advertised speeds, on average, during the peak usage times of between 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. Rogers also announced Wednesday that its Sportsnet network had reached an agreement with the National Hockey League and its players’ association to be the exclusive provider of English-language broadcasts in Canada of the 2016 World Cup of Hockey for TV and online. Financial details were not disclosed. Quebecor Inc.'s TVA Sports has the French-language rights, Rogers said. Complaints about the way Rogers makes both of the online streaming services being included in its Ignite Internet service have already been brought before the CRTC. In October, BCE Inc. complained about Rogers giving free trials of NHL GameCentre Live just to Rogers Internet and wireless subscribers, as well as making its GamePlus service available only to GameCentre users who subscribe to at least one of Rogers' telecom services. Bell chief regulatory officer Mirko Bibic said in a letter to the CRTC that such preferential offerings contravened parts of the CRTC's digital-media exemption order for online broadcasting. As well, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) has protested that the Shomi streaming service, as well as Bell's CraveTV online video service, amount to an undue preference because their availabilities are tied to subscribing to particular Internet or TV services. That case was put before the CRTC and put on an indefinite suspension as the commission sorted out a number of procedural arguments. Rogers spokeswoman Patricia Trott did not directly respond to a question about whether there is any concern the bundling of Internet service with streaming products would result in more regulatory issues. In an email, she noted that NHL GameCentre Live is available to anyone in Canada and that the company is "confident that we’re in compliance with the rules" with respect to GamePlus' availability. Trott added: "Shomi is in beta and we’re considering other ways to offer the product." PIAC executive director John Lawford declined to comment on whether Rogers bundling of streaming services with Internet service packages represents any kind of regulatory transgression. Ben Klass, a telecom researcher who was successful in making his case before the CRTC that mobile-TV services that count data differently than other online traffic amounts to an undue preference, said it's "not clear" that Rogers' bundling of online streaming service with Internet packages violates any regulations. He said Rogers' new offering, however, does highlight the "problematic" situation in which subscribers of only certain services can choose to subscribe to Shomi or CraveTV, unlike U.S. giant Netflix Inc., which makes its services available to anyone in Canada over the Internet. "To the extent that customers of other ISPs cannot access Shomi, for example, the resulting restriction of choice between information sources facing consumers serves to further lessen competition in the market for Internet access," Klass said in an email. On the other hand, Klass said Rogers was taking a "step in the right direction" by providing unlimited data in some of the new Ignite packages. — With reporting by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca and editing by Peter Henderson at phenderson@thewirereport.ca

Rogers includes NHL streaming, Shomi with new Internet packages

News | March 4, 2015

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Rogers includes NHL streaming, Shomi with new Internet packages

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