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overview
holdings
chronology
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overview
This
profile deals with Rogers Communications, a dominant Canadian
broadcaster, publisher and cable tv operator.
It covers -
introduction
Rogers is Canada's largest cable television operator,
with substantial telecommunication and publishing interests.
It has leveraged its infrastructure and cash flow to become
a substantial Canadian telecommunications provider (interests
in the US were sold during the 1990s) and like competitors
such as BCE and CanWest
has expanded into publishing and sports. It does not have
a tangible Australian presence.
the group
Rogers began in the early 1960s when Ted Rogers Jr, son
of an electronics manufacturer and radio station owner,
established FM radio stations and a television station
in Canada.
He went on to build/acquire cable television networks
in North America, a traditional telephone network (subsequently
bought by AT&T), a mobile phone
network (now partly owned by AT&T), the Maclean-Hunter
publishing group and sports teams such as the Blue Jays.
Shaw Communications, the second
largest cable TV operator, swapped systems with Rogers:
Shaw is dominant in Canada's western provinces, Rogers
in the east.
In recent years the Rogers group has used its cable infrastructure
to provide internet and telephone access.
The group covers -
- mobile
telephony - 50% of Rogers AT&T Wireless
- broadcast
television - CFMT Toronto
- broadcast
radio - 29 stations in Canada
- cable
television infrastructure in eastern Canada
- cable
tv programming - inc Canada's The Shopping Channel and
69.9% of Canadian Sportsnet
- magazines
- 62 consumer and business magazines in North America,
including Maclean's, L'actualité and Canadian
Business
- an
internet service provider and internet portal
- multimedia
- Rogers New Media
- 240
video stores in Canada
- sports
An
indication of the holdings is here.
A schematic of the group's structure is here (PDF).
In summary, Rogers Communications has controlling stakes
in Rogers Media, Rogers Wireless and Rogers Cable.
Rogers Media holds Rogers' radio and television broadcasting
operations, consumer and trade publishing operations,
and television home shopping service. Its broadcasting
operations include 43 radio stations across Canada (33
FM and 10 AM radio stations), two multicultural television
stations in Ontario (OMNI.1 and OMNI.2), an 80% interest
in regional sports programming (Rogers Sportsnet) and
The Shopping Channel. Rogers media has minority interests
in Canadian specialty television services - such as Viewers
Choice Canada, Outdoor Life Network and The Biography
Channel Canada - along with 50% of Dome Productions, a
joint venture with CTV Specialty Television in mobile
production. Publishing activity encompasses around 70
consumer magazines, trade/professional publications and
directories.
Rogers Wireless - a mobile phone operator - had around
4.1 million customers at June 2004 (some 3.9 million wireless
voice/ data subscribers and 220,000 paging subscribers).
Its GSM/GPRS network provides coverage to around 93% of
Canada's population, with TDMA and analog network coverage
to around 85% of the population.
Rogers Cable is Canada's largest cable tv operator, with
around 2.3 million basic subscribers (29% of Canada's
basic cable subscribers), around 590,000 digital cable
households and 850,000 internet subscribers. Its operations
are clustered in Ontario, New Brunswick and Newfoundland.
Rogers Video, with some 282 stores as of June 2004 - is
Canada's second largest chain of video stores.
evolution
Ted Rogers Jr, his father and associates launched commercial
tv station CFTO in Ottawa in 1960 before Ted Jr formed
Rogers Radio Broadcasting Ltd in 1961 and acquired Ottawa
FM radio station CHFI-FM. In 1962 Rogers founded CFTR-AM
in Toronto and pioneered FM stereo broadcasting in Canada
at CHFI-FM.
In 1967, as cable television took off in the US, he founded
Bramalea Telecable which gained licenses for areas in
and around Toronto, Brampton and Leamington. During 1974
as Rogers Cable TV it became the first Canadian operator
to offer more than 12 channels. In 1979 it used a reverse-takeover
to gain control of Canadian Cablesystems Ltd and in 1980
acquired Premier Communications Ltd, becoming the largest
cable operator in Canada. It acquired and built cable
systems in the US, sold in March 1989 for C$1.58 billion.
Rogers Communications was established as a holding company.
In 1984 Rogers bought 40% of CNCP Telecommunications,
a nationwide telecommunications operator that had been
formed
by the Canadian National and Canadian Pacific railway
groups (leveraging their right of way). The following
year Rogers became a founder with AT&T
of Rogers Cantel, a national mobile phone network operator
that was later badged as Rogers AT&T Wireless and
then as Rogers Wireless. Rogers Wireless is now 55% owned
by Rogers Communications.
In 1989 CNCP Telecommunications was renamed Unitel Communications,
securing regulatory permission in 1992 to compete in the
Canadian long-distance market. In 1993 some 20% of Unitel
Communications was sold to AT&T,
reducing Rogers Communications interest in Unitel to 32%.
Unitel continued to haemorrhage; restructuring in 1995
mean that Rogers Communications no longer held equity
in that group, having written off upwards of C$500 million.
Other Rogers Communications performed better. In 1994
Rogers acquired publisher Maclean Hunter for C$3.1 billion,
subsequently taking control of the Toronto Sun newspaper
group. Those publishing operations were bundled as Rogers
Media, with European operations being sold to Emap
and the Toronto Sun stake sold to Quebecor
in 1996.
In 2000 Rogers bought the Cable Atlantic cable tv network
but failed to take over the Vidéotron, which was acquired
by Quebecor. Rogers more recently
bought the Toronto Blue Jays (with a majority interest
in the Toronto Phantoms football team), 40% of Sportsnet
from BCE and 13 Ontario radio stations
from Standard Broadcasting for C$100 million.
In early 2007 Rogers agreed to buy the CHUM A Channel
broadcast network from CTVGlobemedia
for C$137.5 million. CTVGlobemedia had acquired that network
through its C$1.4 billion takeover of CHUM
and expected regulatory problems. In June 2007 the Canadian
Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission,
counterpart of Australia's ACMA, ordered CTVGlobemedia
to sell its CITY-TV network, which had stations in five
of Canada's biggest English-language markets (including
Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Winnipeg). The
A Channel deal was immediately cancelled by the broadcasters,
with Rogers instead paying C$375 million for CITY-TV and
CTVGlobemedia keeping CHUM's 33 radio stations and 21
specialty channels, including MuchMusic and Bravo.
Maclean-Hunter
John Bayne Maclean (1862-1950), founded Maclean's
magazine, the Financial Post weekly (sold to
Toronto Sun Publishing Corp in 1987) and Maclean-Hunter
publishers. Maclean worked as a teacher and financial
editor of the Toronto Mail before founding Canadian
Grocer magazine in 1887, Macleans magazine
in 1905, the Financial Post in 1907, Farmer's
Magazine in 1910, Mayfair in 1927 and Chatelaine
in 1928. He acquired Canadian Homes & Gardens
in 1925. By the 1930s the Maclean group had become
Canada's leading magazine publisher, with branches in
the US and UK.
Maclean's associate Horace Talmadge Hunter became chief
executive of the group in 1933; his name was added to
the corporate title in 1945. Floyd Sherman Chalmers (1898-1993)
- a counterpart of Sir Keith Murdoch - started his reporting
career at 17 with the Toronto News, became 21, he became
editor in chief of the Financial Post at 21 and
progressively built a 22% stake in Maclean-Hunter, becoming
its president in 1952 and chair in 1969.
Prior to acquisition by Rogers the group was Canada's
largest publisher of periodicals (with over 130 Canadian
special-interest, consumer and business magazines, directories
and manuals and some as 70 business periodicals in Europe
and the US).
It had a majority stake in Toronto
Sun Publishing (publisher of the Toronto Sun,
Edmonton Sun, Houston Post, Calgary
Sun and Ottawa Sun).
Its broadcast holdings included CTV affiliate CFCN-TV
in Calgary and Lethbridge and 22 radio stations located
in Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Kitchener-Waterloo, Chatham-Wallaceburg,
Ottawa, Sarnia, Leamington and the Maritimes. It was Canada's
third-largest cable tv operator, with 16 cable systems
in 20 Ontario municipalities. It also had book distribution,
commercial printing, trade shows and specialised information
service operations.
Macleans magazine was launched in 1911 (replacing
the Busy Man's Magazine (launched in 1896 and
acquired in 1905) and by the 1920s the magazine was recognised
as an expression of Canadian identity with a mix of news,
social comment and fiction. Maclean's became
a weekly news magazine in 1978, following Time's
abandonment of Canada. Its French edition (initially
Le Magazine Maclean) was launched in 1961 and was
amalgamated in 1976 with L'Actualité.
studies
There is a thin study by Bruce McDougall - Ted
Rogers: A Biography (Toronto: Burgher 1995) and a
more recent profile in Gordon Pitts' Kings of Convergence
(Toronto: Doubleday 2002). Building an Industry: History
of Cable Television in Canada (Lawrencetown Beach:
Pottersfield Press 2000) by insider Ken Easton has more
bite.
For Maclean Hunter see Christina McCall's The Man
from Oxbow: The Best of Ralph Allen (Toronto: McClelland
& Stewart 1967) and David MacKenzie's more searching
Arthur Irwin: A Biography (Toronto: Uni of Toronto
Press 1993). Memoirs include My Times: Living with
History, 1947-1995 (Toronto: Doubleday 1995) by editor
Pierre Berton and The Private Voice (Toronto:
McClelland & Stewart 1989) by Peter Gzowski. For Chatelaine
see Valerie Korinek's Roughing It in the Suburbs:
Reading Chatelaine Magazine in the Fifties and Sixties
(Toronto: Uni of Toronto Press 2000).
next
page (Rogers holdings)
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