TORONTO – If it can’t buy ’em, it looks like Rogers might overbuild ’em.
Rogers Cable has applied to the CRTC to extend its cable territories in Ontario to include a chunk of Cogeco Cable’s Ontario wheelhouse: Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Halton Hills, as well as into tiny Aurora Cable’s market in Aurora, just north of Toronto.
A move like this may signal a stark departure from the historically collegial cable industry where each company kept to its own territory and expanded by purchasing other cable companies. (Aurora and Cogeco are both known not to be for sale, however.)
In fact, when contacted by Cartt.ca, Aurora Cable Internet owner Jim Irvine said he was a little surprised when he heard about the application today on Cartt.ca. “They made is a pretty nice offer (to purchase Aurora) a couple of months ago, but I guess they didn’t get the answer they were looking for.”
For a small system, 42-year-old Aurora offers a pretty competitive bundle of digital television, high definition, Internet and voice and thrives in a wealthy community with an attractive demographic. It has about 50 employees.
“We don’t really have any intention to sell it,” added Irvine. “When you have a pretty nice, viable business and you treat people well and (employees) well, I don’t see any reason why.”
“Today, Rogers is able to provide three out of the four Quadruple Play services (i.e. wireless, Internet and local telephony) outside of our cable footprint. In the extremely competitive GTA market, our inability to also provide cable television service in such high-growth neighbouring areas as the Halton region and the community of Aurora puts us at a significant competitive disadvantage to other providers, such as Bell Canada,” reads Rogers’ submission.
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Bell Canada has a regional BDU license covering Southern Ontario and Quebec and Rogers knows at some point, the giant telco will move ahead with its digital television plans. It would be much easier for Rogers to compete in Southern Ontario if it can provide service across the entire extended GTA.
“Bell Canada has been licensed on a regional basis to serve parts of the provinces of Ontario and Quebec, including contiguous serving areas that stretch from Hamilton to Oshawa. It is expected to begin rolling out its service this Fall,” reads the Rogers application.
“The main thing with this application is that it fills in a few holes in our existing licensed areas and would allow us, if approved, to offer a full suite of services, so there is an opportunity to bundle our products,” Rogers Cable vice-president, regulatory, told Cartt.ca. “If you look at the maps, you’ll see that Rogers extends into Halton already and then we have a gap, and then we’re in Guelph.”
“The bundling of programming and non-programming services has become the critical component of almost every communications company’s branding and marketing strategy. Rogers has consistently marketed our company as a one-stop shop for a complete range of communications services: programming, high-speed Internet and wireline/wireless telephony. However, in the high-growth areas that are directly adjacent to our serving areas in the GTA, we are unable to provide one component of our Quadruple Play offer – cable television service. We face a competitive disadvantage relative to other integrated communications companies serving these areas,” concludes the submission.
While it may seem unusual for Rogers to want to build out a network over such a large new swath of territory, getting its licensed territories extended, given existing competitors already in Toronto like Novus Communications and Venoa Video (two BDUs who are tied to certain condo developments), shouldn’t be a problem.
“I think the precedent is there – that there can be more than one provider,” added Dinsmore.
