Having been in beta for the last six months, Rogers took its On Demand Online (or RODO for short) service out of beta and officially launched it throughout Canada today. The site will offer TV shows, movies, music videos and web-exclusives for free to both visitors and existing Rogers customers who already subscribe to any of the company’s Internet, wireless, TV or home phone.
Viewing content on the site doesn’t require registering for an account, but being a Rogers customer does unlock more available content, leading to other perks like live sporting events and concerts. According to Rogers, there is 1,500 hours of video content currently available on the site. Much of that is from shows that have run on the channels Rogers has partnered with. These include well-known ones like CityTV, Global, Sportsnet, HGTV, Showcase and The Food Network. Others include shows from various parts of the world.
Very few of the shows available will have full seasons or entire episode runs. As is, many have only a handful of episodes at most, though Rogers says that will change once more content partnerships and agreements are rolled out in the next few months. Added features for registered users are also expected to be part of the mix.
There is also a social networking element to the On Demand service that Rogers is touting. Viewers will be able to comment on episodes and interact with each other, much like members do on YouTube and other video sites. To create awareness for the service, Rogers started up a Facebook page and Twitter feed.
In addition, Rogers TV customers will be able to access some of the same channels they’re used to watching on television. Any person who joins can create a playlist of videos to watch anytime they please. There is no definitive schedule as to when new episodes will be added to the mix, but the company did confirm that there will be regular updates.
Time will tell how well the site does in the long-term, and whether it will evolve into a ‘Hulu of the North’. But for now, you can hop online and browse it yourself free of charge.
a sidebar to the sidebar – the video content from Rogers and Vuguru will be available through Rogers new Mobile On Demand service, and the series has now got its own iPad app, as well!
Thanx for the update, Ted….
A sidebar to this story is Rogers’ recent initiatives to make its own content, ostensibly for online portals such as RODO.
Rogers has made a big investment in Hollywood, and the company operated by famous producer and studio head Micheal Eisner.
It’s called Vuguru, and now the Rogers – Vuguru partnership is pulling the curtain back, so to speak, on its first production.
It’s called Shorts in the City, and they’re promising more than 17 shows, 500 episodes and 35 hours of drama, comedy, sci-fi, thriller, horror and animation as serialized online video content.
More than web video, though, this kind of exclusive partnership and content creation arrangement means Rogers can deliver its own content to mobile devices (they mentioned the iPad in particular!), its VOD platform and eventually, haha, ‘real TV’.
It’s a small sample of what vertical integration and the new media empires can and will do in the future – owning both the content and the pipes to deliver it.
To pull it all off this time around, Rogers has also partnered with citytv.com, OMD Media, Fireworks and of course Vuguru. Ads from Nissan Canada will be integrated in the programming.