Rogers Cable

Rogers Communications is the largest cable television service provider in Canada. The company has around 2.2 million customers in southern Ontario ? which incidentally is about 90% of all customers, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, selected areas of eastern Quebec and the towns of Toronto, Ottawa, London and Barrie. As per December 31 2004 reports, the company had about 29% of basic cable subscribers in Canada.

The company offers cable television, digital cable and high definition television, video on demand, broadband Internet access, interactive television and enhanced television. Rogers Cable also operates Rogers Video, which is again Canada's largest domestic video store chain.

Rogers is a trendsetter in a way, because the company was among the first cable system operators in Canada, having secured licenses that covered much of Toronto in the mid-1960s. However it was not till the late 1980s and early 1990s that the company really started to grow. And it happened when Rogers started to buy other cable operators who served areas across Canada including Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, northern Ontario, and Hamilton. The largest such takeover happened when Rogers acquired Maclean Hunter in 1994, which interestingly was also a large cable operator at that time. Today, their main competitors are Bell ExpressVu and Star Choice.

On December 31st 2004, Rogers provided digital cable services to around 675,400 households and Internet service to about 936,600 subscribers.

Here is the detailed economic break up of Rogers cable.

• Year 2004 2003
• Revenue $1,946 $1,788
• Operating profit $709 $664
• Cable operating profit margin 41.7% 42.4%
• Property, plant and equipment expenditures $588 $510
• Basic cable subscribers 2,254,600 2,269,400
• Tier penetration 69% 71%
• Digital terminals in service 795,700 613,600
• Digital households 675,400 535,300
• Internet subscribers 936,600 777,800
• Video stores 294 279

To maintain the advantage in the market you have to constantly evolve these days. Rogers has also been able to emerge as one of the major innovators not only in the cable industry but also in the telecommunications industry. With its growing digital cable service, the company today offers high definition television, video on demand, interactive television and enhanced television. Not too forget broadband Internet with Yahoo.