By Alan Breznick LightReading
Rogers Communications is trying to transform itself into the Comcast of Canada, at least when it comes to residential video, broadband and smart-home services.
In its fourth-quarter earnings call early Thursday morning, Rogers Communications Inc. (Toronto: RCI) spelled out its intentions to deploy several platforms and services licensed from Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) over the next 12 months or so as it seeks to spur video growth and trim capital and operating expenses. The list of US imports includes Comcast’s X1 IP video platform and set-tops, new DOCSIS 3.1 wireless gateway and new Digital Home whole-home networking solution.
The moves come about a month after Rogers dumped its fledgling IPTV product and signed a long-term deal with Comcast to deploy X1, joining fellow Canadian MSO Shaw Communications Inc. and US MSO Cox Communications Inc. . They also come about four months after Rogers and Shaw, the two biggest cable operators in Canada, decided to shut down shomi, their joint OTT video service that failed to gain much traction against Netflix.