48. Rogers Communications, Inc.

Revenues 2022: CAD 6.348 billion (€ 4.635 billion)

Overview

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Rogers Communications (RCI) is a Canadian communication service provider that is constituted of three divisions: Rogers Wireless, Rogers Cable and Rogers Media. The company’s core business is the TV and telecommunication business. On top of that, RCI owns magazines, athletic associations and distributes films on DVD and via video-on-demand. For now, the engagement is limited to the national market. Rogers Wireless is Canada’s biggest wireless voice and data-communication service provider and Rogers Cable is the most important cable television provider with a high-speed network that also offers Internet services or landline phone. This particular segment of the company belongs to Rogers Business Solutions, a national provider of voice/language services, data network operation and broadband Internet for small, medium and large companies. Rogers Media is Canada’s leading media group, made up of business branches in radio and television transmission, publishing, tele/home shopping and sports entertainment.

General Information

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Headquarters:
333 Bloor St. East, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1G9, Canada
Telefon: 001 416 935 7777
Telefax: 001 416 935 3597
Internet: www.rogers.com

Branches: Mobile, cable, radio, television, newspapers, Video/DVD, telecommunications, sports teams 
Legal form: Public Company 
Financial year: 1/1 - 12/31 

Table I: Economic Performance
20162015201420132012201120102009200820072006
Revenues (CAD Mio.)13,70213,41412,85012,70612,48612.42812,18611.73111.33510.1238.838
Profit (loss) after taxes(CAD Mio.)8351,4901,3411,6691,7321.7471.7071.4781.002637622
Share price (in CAD, end of year)38,5834,4638,7945,2545,5238,1234,2732,6926,4344.4327.64
Employees25,00026,00027,00028,00027,00029,00027.97128.98529.20024.400k.A.

*est.

Table II: Segment revenues (CAD Mio.)
WirelessCableBusiness SolutionsMedia
20075.1543.5581.317
20086.3352.8783.809
20096.6533.9481.407
20106.9684.0521.501
20117.1383.796

1.611

20127,2803,3583511,620
20137,2703,4753741,704
20147,3053,7673821,826
20157,6513,6543772,079
20167,9163,4493842,146

Executives and Directors

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Management:

  • Joe Natale, President and Chief Executive Officer
  • Dirk Woessner, President, Consumer
  • Dean Prevost, President, Enterprise
  • Rick Brace, President, Media
  • Tony Staffieri, Chief Financial Officer
  • James Smith, Interim Chief Technology Officer
  • Lisa Durocher, Chief Digital Officer
  • David P. Miller, Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer, Secretary
  • Jim Reid, Chief Human Resources Officer
  • Jamie Williams, Chief Information Officer

 

Board of Directors:

  • Alan D. Horn, Rogers
  • Bonnie R. Brooks, Hudson's Bay Company
  • Robert K. Burgess, Rogers
  • John H. Clappinson, Rogers
  • Philip B. Lind, Rogers
  • John A. MacDonald, Rogers
  • Isabelle Marcoux, Transcontinental Inc.
  • David R. Petersen, Cassels Brock & Blackwell
  • Edward S. Rogers, Rogers
  • Loretta Anne Rogers, Rogers
  • Martha L. Rogers
  • Melinda M. Rogers, Rogers
  • Charles Sirois, Rogers
  • Robert Depatie, Quebecor
  • Robert J. Gemmel, Citigroup
  • Joe Natale, Rogers

History

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The founder of Canada’s largest cable network operator, Edward S. Rogers Sr. is considered the inventor of radios with electric plugs. Prior to that, radio receivers could only be operated with batteries. When it came to the populisation of radio, his invention was the catalytic factor in the breakthrough. As it is not unusual with many of the large media companies in North America, the company founder was a very talented technician at the same time, who knew his product inside out himself. In 1925, he founded a company named ‘Standard Radio Manufacturing’. The company history of Rogers Comm. goes way back to this very initial establishment, although the company only officially came into existence in 1967 in its current incarnation. Edward S. Rogers Jr., nicknamed ‘Ted’ was five years old when his father died. Just a student, he bought the CHFI-FM radio station in Toronto. Despite the fact that a mere 5 percent of all Canadian households possessed a shortwave-receiver, he anticipated the triumphant victory march of this technology. For a land the size of Canada that, unlike Europe, sports giant stretches of unsettled country, this endeavour was far from being a matter of course. In 1967, he acquired the first licenses for Toronto, Brampton and Leamington.

As early as 1974, Rogers Cable Television was broadcasting 12 programs already and its program orientated itself on the country’s multi-cultural framework, which resulted in a relatively high degree of versatility. Until 1980, Rogers Cable went on to become the biggest cable company in Canada through various further acquisitions. Beginning in 1979, Rogers attempted to set foot onto the US-American market, but it was decided to sell all shares again in 1989 and focus on the Canadian market. Drawing on the experiences from the cable network business, Rogers developed a new business field: In 1985, the company attacked the established phone companies with a national mobile network. According to in-house data, Rogers Cantel Inc. (Today: Rogers Wireless) covers 94 percent of the country with its network. However, the landline phone business proved to be a more tricky obstacle to overcome in the early stage: In 1967, the telegraph branches of Canada’s two largest railroad companies formed the ‘Canadian National-Canadian Pacific’ (CNCP) joint-venture which transformed into a phone company by 1980. In 1984, Rogers bought a share of 40 percent and renamed the company to Unitel Communications. Following the liberalisation of the Canadian phone market in 1992, the national radio committee commissioned the company to compete with the Bell Canada monopoly, as a result of which the US company AT&T acquired 20 % of Unitel. The next step was a restructuring of Unitel that ended in 1995 with the withdrawal of Rogers from the business of landline phone operation.

In 1994, RG made a successful attempt to enter the print media market. The company took over the Maclean Hunter publishing house and its book and newspaper range for 2 billion US Dollars. That acquisition and the expensive technical improvement of the cable networks forced the company to part with several positions (including the home security division of Rogers Telecom). Therefore, the offer from Microsoft in 1999, to buy into RG with 9% in order to distribute interactive services through the broadband network, was welcomed with according enthusiasm. The contract encompasses the license for Microsoft TV and includes the usage of Microsoft set-top-boxes.

RG continued its expansion course in 2000. The company bought Cable Atlantic TV Network, but failed in the attempt to take over the Vidéotron Cable Network for 3,62 Billion US $. One year later, Rogers bought 13 radio stations from Standard Broadcasting and became the owner of the Major League baseball team Toronto Blue Jays (for 112 million US$) as well as the football team Toronto Phantoms. In 2004, the company bought into Dome Productions with 50 %, Canada’s leading provider of HDTV-Technology and also took over mobile phone provider Microcell for 1,4 billion CAD $ and bought back his shares from AT&T Wireless. By acquiring Call-Net Enterprises in 2005, Rogers will be competing in the telecommunication sector for both long distance and local calls.

For the last ten years, Rogers Communications has been continuously increasing its revenue. In 2007, RCI registered increasing revenues first and foremost in the mobile phone division as well as cable and telecommunications, boosted its investments and entered selected cooperations. As part of the contractual agreement, Ericsson provided the Canadian company with the technology for the expansion of its HSDPA-voice and data network (High Speed Downlink Packet Access). Through this move, RG strengthened its position as the largest national provider of wireless data services and disposed of an immense quantity of content at the same time. Through considerably faster broadband services, the network provider could now offer new software applications, including video conferencing, remote desktop access, interactive games over the net, video ring tones and dynamically generated content in the mobile internet. As part of its customer management strategy, RCT implemented software by Amdcos in June 2006, a provider of applications and services for integrated customer management. In September 2006, RCI entered an agreement with CBS Paramount International Television that made it possible to offer its customers video-on-demand services.

In December 2008, company founder and CEO Edward S. ‘Ted’ Rogers died. Following his demise, the company leadership went to a trust that is made up of family members and beneficiaries. The Rogers Control Trust is administered by a chartered Canadian Bank and supports members of the Rogers family.

In March 2009, Nadir Mohamed took over the position of CEO. The most important task of the new head of the company, who studied economy at the University of B.C. and later worked for Price Waterhouse, had been to defend and secure the company’s position at the top of the Canadian wireless and cable market. “The world is changing”, as Mohamed is quoted in the Canadian newspaper ‘Vancouver Sun’. ‘“How we won the last five years is going to be different from how we win going forward.”

In September 2009, the restructuring of personnel resulted in Edward S. Rogers, son of the company founder being made the Deputy Chairman. Through this position, Rogers is trusted with vital strategic assignments and de facto shared the company leadership with Mohamed. The two had been competing over the position of CEO beforehand.

In December 2009, Rogers launched its On Demand Online service for downloading films and videos. The platform, which is operated by Rogers and 20 partners, is being constantly expanded and provides the customers with functions such as social networks, live television and its own television program.

Management

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When company founder Ted Rogers died in late 2008, Nadir Mohamed took over the CEO position in March 2009. In September 2009, Edward S. Rogers was named the Deputy Chairman in the company of his father on top of that. Apart from Edward S. Rogers, the management of RCI is home to several other members of the Rogers family, particularly the young Melinda M. Rogers, who is responsible for the important strategy and development division through her position as vice-president. Last but not least, Loretta Rogers serves as the company director and yet another Edward S. Rogers gives the family of the company founder a not inconsiderable influence in management. The leading body includes the 56-year-old Alan D. Horn, who functions as a director and has been part of the supervisory board in 2006. Under the leadership of Nadir Mohamed, Rogers Wireless grew to become the largest cable network provider in Canada, sporting more than 5,5 million customers. Rogers’ profit numbers enjoyed another good stint under his leadership. In the most recent quarters, the management and its consistent company leadership including the utilisation of new technologies brought in increasing revenues.

Business Fields

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Rogers Communications is the largest Canadian mobile communications and cable network provider. The company is divided into three sub-divisions:

Mobile Communications
The mobile communications division Rogers Wireless (RW) and its 7,4 millions customers has been the leading provider in Canada since 2004 and also disposes of the new national GSM/GPRS network. In Autumn 2006, Rogers Wireless launched the introduction of UMTH/HSDPA, the most efficient wireless high-speed network of today. By means of this technology, RW seeks to extend its capacities and push new services into the market. Rogers tapped another part of the growing mobile communications market in 2010 with the introduction of the Chatr discount brand.

Furthermore, Rogers also nurtures the cooperation with its customers. With the help of an online-community for developers, users will have the ability to develop applications for Rogers’ mobile range. The foundation is the Catalyst program that is made available by Rogers. It is however, still in the beta phase of development.

Cable networks and video/DVD distribution
Rogers Cable and Telecom INC (RCT) operates cable networks in Ontario, New Brunswick, Labrador and Newfoundland with a total of 2,3 million households and factually reaches 29 % of the Canadian households (Canada has 33 million citizens). Apart from HDTV-programs and personal video recording services, the services encompass high-speed Internet connections, sport programmes as well as four video-on-demand-programs. The take-over of phone provider Call-Net Enterprises in July 2005 extended RCT’s sphere of activities to landline telecommunication. Rogers Cable Telecom entered the highly competitive growth market and offers its local services with Internet-phone nationwide in the whole cable network and competes with the largest telephone company in the country, Bell Canada.

On top of that, the second-largest video chain in Canada, Rogers Video and its approximately 294 video shops are part of RCT. In June 2008, Rogers Communications also acquired 100 % of shares of the Aurora Cable TV Limited company (Aurora Cable), a cable provider based in the region of York, Ontario.

Television and Radio
Rogers Media Inc. bundles Rogers Broadcasting (RB) with 43 radio senders with the only Canadian home shopping television channel The Shopping Channel and the two ethno-multicultural television channels OMNI.1 and OMNI.2. In 2005, RB bought the NOW TV channel and positioned it on the market under the moniker of OMNI.10. Furthermore, three new news radio stations were created in Halifax, Saint John and Moncton respectively. In 2008, the company also bought the remaining two third of shares of the Outdoor Life Network (OLN). RB holds several minority stakes of niche channels such as Viewers Choice Canada", "G4TechTV Canada" ("Tech TV"), "The Biography Channel Canada" and "Channel M" from Vancouver. When it comes to niche channels TechTV and The Biography Channel, RB also serves as the executive producer. In 2005, the infomercial producer Mix Promotions was also added to the portfolio.

In 2004, Rogers Media took over the rest of the 20% shares of Sportsnet by Fox Sports Net Canada.
Rogers Sportsnet operates several sports channels that are available in the whole of Canada via cable and satellite. The company registers 7,3 million customers and annual revenues of 100 million Canadian Dollars. Through the take over of Sportsnet, Rogers Communications fulfils its dream of a completely cross-linked sport media giant: The games of the Blue Jays baseball team are sponsored by Rogers Wireless, transmitted by Sportsnet and the radio stations, with the magazines reporting the matter on top of it. The company also plans to transmit the Blue Jay games over the mobile communication network. By means of this crossover promotion, the company hopes to win over more cable customers and mobile customers respectively and increase the revenues. Even the stomping grounds of the Toronto Blue Jays, the SkyDome, Canada’s biggest event venue was bought buy Rogers Media in 2004 and renamed into the Rogers Center. Together with Bell Globemedia, Rogers Media secured the TV rights and marketing rights for both the Olympic Games 2010 and 2012 for the Canadian market.

Publishers
Rogers Publishing encompasses more than 70 consumer magazines, economy and special interest magazines (such as Maclean's, Chatelaine, Flare, L'actualité, Canadian Business) as well as phone books and Internet information services. The subsidiary company Magnetic North offers post-production for television and film.