Rogers trials Digital Starter Pack in London

[hugh]

Rogers announced today the launch of the first Digital Starter Pack which the company claims will give Rogers cable customers "the choice and flexibility they want."

Available beginning November 8 as a trial in London, Ontario, the Rogers Digital Starter Pack delivers a standard set of 86 core TV channels, including government mandated channels, for a base price of $20.29/month including all monthly fees.

Customers can order the Digital Starter Pack and then choose any additional 15, 20 or 30 channels from more than 100 options, starting at $26.38/month including all monthly fees.

The Digital Starter Pack trial will run until the end of March 2012.

Customers in the London area can contact Rogers by phone or visit their local Rogers retail store to learn more about the Digital Starter Pack.

[hugh]

Don't know how this gives customers "the choice and flexibility they want."

What about a la carte pricing or "nothing but HD" pricing? That's what I hear everyone around here want!

[ve3sy]

It will be interesting to see how this rolls out. Like many of this groups readers, I watch probably less than 12 channels - those being the speciality HD and no matter how I tried to drop the 350 channels I did not want, I was forced to take VIP before starting at the HD selections.

I expect this is being driven by Bell's FIBE offering of 80 basic channels for a low price. Time will tell.

[ScaryBob]

Customers can order the Digital Starter Pack and then choose any additional 15, 20 or 30 channels from more than 100 options, starting at $26.38/month including all monthly fees.

That sounds like a-la-carte to me. The basic package price sounds too good to be true. I'm guessing the programming is very similar to the VIP analog package. If Rogers get's enough analog customers to switch to this new digital plan, they can shut down analog for good.

[MapMaker]

a standard set of 86 core TV channels, including government mandated channels, for a base price of $20.29/month

I can't imagine 86 "TV" channels without the majority of them being audio "channels".

RVT (Radio via television) is wasted on me, I'm seriously thinking of going back to television via radio (OTA)

[Humbar]

This must be a price for 1 year. I can't see how Rogers can make any money on a price that low. I also wonder how they were able to negotiate this with their channel providers. On the other hand the flexibility is marginal, since you can't order less than 15 channels. How about ordering 1 channel extra only. Also i'm sure their is linkage rules meaning you can't order only U.S. channels. I'd like to read the fine print

[ScaryBob]

I forgot about audio channels. That means this could be the same as basic analog cable with a selection of FM or digital music channels added. Dose anyone have the channel list?

[hugh]

I can't imagine 86 "TV" channels without the majority of them being audio "channels".

Rogers describes the channels as "core TV Channels."

According to the Rogers Website, their are 146 stations in the Rogers Digital Basic package. Of those 63 are audio. Of the remaining 83, they consist primarily of OTA channels (10 CBC channels), OTA Ethnic channels, Religious channels, sales channels and Rogers owned digital specialty channels such as SportsNet. They even count PPV channels in that 86 which I think is disingenuous.

In other words, few if any of these stations cost Rogers Cable a dime in terms of programming costs. (yes Sportsnet costs Rogers money to produce but that is a cost paid by Rogers Media not Rogers Cable

[hugh]

Here is the list I compiled of non-audio channels in the Rogers basic package and would likely be the components of the trial package

1. ABC Buffalo (WKBW)
2. APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network)
3. ATV Halifax (CTVAT)
4. CablePulse24
5. CBC Calgary (CBRT)
6. CBC Halifax (CBHT)
7. CBC Newsworld/Voiceprint (SAP)
8. CBC Oshawa (Channel 12 CHEX TV Durham)
9. CBC St. John's (CBNT)
10. CBC Toronto (CBLT)
11. CBC Vancouver (CBUT)
12. CBC Winnipeg (CBWT)
13. CBS Buffalo (WIVB)
14. CHCH
15. Citytv Calgary
16. Citytv Toronto
17. Citytv Vancouver
18. Citytv Winnipeg
19. CPAC English (main audio) (Cable Public Affairs Channel)
20. CPAC French (main audio) (Cable Public Affairs Channel)
21. CPWA FM Portuguese Radio Toronto
22. CTS (Crossroads Television System)
23. CTV Calgary (CTVCA)
24. CTV Kitchener/London (CTVSO)
25. CTV News Channel
26. CTV Toronto (CTVTO)
27. GameTV
28. Global BC (CHAN)
29. Global Calgary (CICT)
30. Global Toronto (CIII)
31. Grace TV
32. Joytv 10
33. Joytv 11
34. Mediaset Italia
35. Metro 14
36. Multicultural Free Preview Channel
37. Multicultural on Demand
38. NBC Buffalo (WGRZ)
39. NFL Network On Demand
40. Pay Per View 23
41. Pay Per View 3
42. Pay Per View 5
43. Pay Per View Preview Channel
44. PBS Buffalo (WNED)
45. RDI
46. Real Estate Channel
47. Rogers On Demand
48. Rogers TV
49. Rotisserie Channel
50. ShopTV Canada
51. Sports Preview Channel
52. Sportsnet East
53. Sportsnet Ontario
54. Sportsnet Pacific
55. Sportsnet West
56. SRC Toronto (CBLFT)
57. SUN TV
58. Télé Québec (CIVM)
59. TFO (CHLF)
60. The Accessible Channel
61. The Aquarium Channel
62. The Cottage Channel
63. The Shopping Channel (tSc)
64. The Sunset Channel
65. The Weather Network
66. TLN en Espanol
67. Treehouse On Demand
68. Treehouse
69. TV Call Display
70. TV Listings
71. TV Mix - Kids
72. TV5
73. TVA Montreal (CFTM)
74. TVOntario (TVO - CICA)
75. TXT-TV
76. VisionTV
77. VoicePrint
78. W Network (East)
79. WNLO Buffalo (CW23)
80. WNYO Buffalo (MyNetworkTV)
81. Your World This Week
82. YTV (East)
83. YTV On Demand

[scotta]

I wonder how easy it will be to change the line up in an additional channel pack once you have it?

[hugh]

The trial is in response to the CRTC's demand in September that cable companies offer consumers a "skinny basic cable" service which consisits of a limited number of television channels at a lower monthly cost and more so-called “à la carte options” which enable consumers to pick and pay for the channels they want.


My guess is that Rogers will make little effort to promote this and will make it difficult to get. Rogers wants this trial to fail so they can go to the CRTC and say "look, we tried Skinny basic and ala carte programming and it failed because no one wanted it"

[billpaidJr]

^^ agree with that. They make more money the other way. I'm sure they will find a way to up-sell people into other packages. Probably using HD as the carrot.

[spensar]

Globe Article today, basically a recap.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle2221633/

[LONSat]

I will be investigating this to see what my costs would be in comparison to Shaw Direct's OVP/DVP package. I have held off on doing the PVR thing with SD based on feedback and there are now many channels, SD and HD, that Shaw is missing. If I can pick and choose the channels I want and get something close to the monthly costs that I am paying now I will probably jump ship. Heck I might be even be willing to pay a little more than I pay now if I can get closer to the channels I want and am missing from SD.

[Candew]

Customers can order the Digital Starter Pack and then choose any additional 15, 20 or 30 channels from more than 100 options

So out of all of the channels Rogers currently carries, you only get to choose from an additional 100 channels for a la carte in addition to the 'core' channels provided for in the package?

Why the restrictions? A la carte should mean I get to choose the channels I wish to view outside of the 'core' channel offerings from ALL of the available channels Rogers currently carry, not just from 100 so chosen by Rogers.

This really pisses me off to no end!