TORONTO – While much of the industry’s attention will be focused on a plain, grey building in Gatineau on Monday (btw, anyone else see the irony that the Cable Public Affairs Channel is the only place providing full video coverage of the hearing this week on cpac.ca?), a couple of other interesting items are on the industry docket this week.
Rogers Communications is apparently still set to launch its new broadband video customer portal in a soft launch to certain customers this week.
More irony here… While the closed shop, regulated, OTA, MPEG2 and RF driven system is being debated in Gatineau, Rogers will unveil a new way for existing subscribers to get to the video content they subscribe to online, for no extra cost. Authenticated Rogers customers will have access to at least 25 of their video services at launch, we hear, with more to come as the service matures.
As we re-reported here, Rogers Communications VP video product management, David Purdy, recently told a New York gathering that the launch date for his company’s new venture is November 17th and we’ve yet to hear word to the contrary that the date has changed.
Sources say the company will begin notifying some customers of the new portal and how it works this week and that there will be a larger media splash in the coming weeks.
Click here for our interview with Purdy about his portal earlier this year.
The other bit of news coming Tuesday is something Bell Canada is calling an “Olympic Broadcast First” in the release inviting us to its “significant partnership announcement related to the 2010 Winter Games.”
We’ve got a few educated guesses as to what it might be, but they’d be just that, guesses. So, we’ll have someone there in person Tuesday to find out.
Watch Cartt.ca for more on these stories as they develop.
