Rogers Communications has booted up its new online TV service, providing its customers with online access to specific broadcast programming and entire TV channels.
The beta version was shown to a media audience yesterday, at an event entitled 'The Next Big Thing in Television', with announced plans for full launch on November 30th, 2009.
The Rogers On Demand Online web portal provides Rogers customers with a video player with full screen option, content search tools (by name, genre, date aired and other parameters), in order to watch TV content at a time and place of their choosing.
Rogers' owned properties, such as Sportsnet, will certainly appear on the portal, but also programming from other broadcasters, including TVO, Citytv, Treehouse and SuperChannel, among many others. More content partnership announcements are forthcoming.
Dave Purdy, Vice President Video Product Management at Rogers Communications helped unveil the service, noting that its kicks off with content from some 16 broadcast partners and 19 TV and specialty channels. "Our vision is to have every partners' content online," Purdy explained, saying the goal is to provide customers with access to content in their chosen fashion, be it linear TV, digital cable On Demand or now the online On Demand service.
Early descriptions and proposals for such a service had been made by Rogers at recent industry events, including hearings held by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, both into so-called 'Net Neutrality issues, as well as the more recent hearings on TV funding. Dubbed somewhat facetiously by CRTC commissioners as the "Purdy Portal", the Rogers On Demand Online portal is now a reality.
What's more, Purdy, along with Senior Director of Product Management, Broadband Entertainment Jeremy Butteriss, noted that mobile services will be added to the service, planned for Q2 of 2010. Social media tools and site links will be added going forward, live events will be covered by online streaming services - a service that speaks to many of Rogers' own properties, such as its sports teams and facilities.
Access to the site is for Rogers' customers; Purdy noted that any Rogers cable or wireless client would be able to use the online services. Certain authentication or entitlement procedures will both ensure customers get access to the appropriate services, as well as protecting the broadcast partners' program rights, Purdy described. Freely accessible content, as well as premium programming, is planned.
The back-end system allows the provider to monitor and identify cable modem IP addresses, link to subscriber data and service package descriptions, to ensure entitlement or authentication to corresponding online content. Tiered cable package definitions and content access will be mirrored in the online portal, so that content access reflects a customer's existing service level. Purdy noted that any additional cable service would almost immediately be reflected in the online access.
Lara Skripitsky, Director of Marketing for Broadband Entertainment at Rogers, demonstrated the front end of the system, noting basic navigation choices through the site that provide access to content by category (TV Shows, Movies, Genres, Channels, What's Hot ), Favourites, Most Watched and more. She showed how programs can be paused, rewound or fast forwarded using control on the built-in video viewer, which started showing the streaming content almost immediately.
She noted that a full road map going forward is in the plans, with additional content partners, site features and exclusive offers are coming.
Banner ads and other online promotional material are placed throughout the portal interface, although a full screen and a 'dim the lights' mode are available to allow more focussed attention on the actual requested content.
Commercial programs are aired with breaks intact, although at the start of service, only one commercial will run in the break. The ads cannot be skipped or fast forward, although Butteriss noted that viewers can return to a program to pick up where they left off without having to watch all the show (or the commercials) again.
Depending on the content partner and the outcome of rights negotiations, the content model is ad supported for now, but that could change going forward, Purdy noted.
Two levels, or profiles, for content delivery are supported on the site at present, Butteriss and Senior Technical Manager Dennis Kuzmar noted. A standard definition service delivers decent quality video at 480 Kbits, while a higher quality profile delivers video at one Mbit.
Butteriss said that the term "'high definition' is used and abused term", but allowed that plans at the Rogers portal is to get service speeds up to 2 or 2.5 Mbits per second.
Of course, a customer's Internet usage rates will be affected by the streaming of high quality TV content, so usage meters are now or soon to be part of the service. Customers with Internet usage caps, or customers who want concurrent access to the service across multiple computers, can be monitored and informed of usage levels.
Speaking to recent reports of Rogers Communications partnering with content creation companies, Purdy said that the site would not "tie up" content, explaining that while exclusive content was not planned, the partnership between Rogers and Vuguru, for example, would make its own decisions about providing its content.
However, content on the portal will be greater than that available over the air in some cases. Purdy described how DVD style extras can be added to the portal, and noted that some conventional over the air TV shows are edited for time and audience sensitivity. Such restrictions may not be necessary online, he said, with strong parental controls and online content warnings.