Rogers buyout of Shaw

[nusatman1]

Ok!
So for those of us in the “southern provinces” - what do you think this will do to our services? Will we gain or will we lose?
So far the big issue has been the mobile side of things with barely a mention of the TV aspect.
Thoughts? Comments? Speculations?

 

[mikekohl]

Ok!
So for those of us in the “southern provinces” - what do you think this will do to our services? Will we gain or will we lose?
So far the big issue has been the mobile side of things with barely a mention of the TV aspect.
Thoughts? Comments? Speculations?

The first thing I would worry about is how diligent the new company is about verifying credit cards and billing addresses when they process your billing every month. Shaw never cared to go there, and happily took our money for years; unlike Bell, who loved to shut off service to anyone who they even suspected of being outside of the home country. You will probably need a Canadian bank account or credit card to draw your payments from, if this happens. And then there is the limited coverage of Anik G1, which is more or less unreliable once you are more than 300 miles past Canadian soil. Most of us saw the writing on the wall with the impending failure of Anik F2, and abandoned the service already. I find that CBC Explore is readily available on Roku, so that helps continue the ability to get CBC News coverage outside of Canada. If you will miss Canadian radio (much of which is blocked on the internet by geo-location), a VPN will help restore many of those services when heard via one of the audio delivery apps for radio that are found on Roku. In fact, a number of Windows 11 computers that have a Microsoft 365 subscription have it bundled with a working VPN that takes care of that radio problem. You should consider some backup options before things change with Shaw Direct, once Rogers takes over. Good luck!

 

[harshness]

The media's focus on the Shaw buyout has been the wireless and cable services. What happens with Shaw Direct remains somewhat of a mystery but whatever happens, I don't imagine anything will improve for those south of the 40th parallel.

The content carriage contracts will continue to prohibit delivery beyond where the maple leaf flag flies.

 

[stecle]

I doubt Rogers will do anything different with Shaw Direct except for a name change. The infrastructure is already in place. Shaw Direct without question has a far superior picture with their STB's over Bell. It would be a shame if they moved to an inferior technology or over-compressed to make more money.

Bell has never been very customer friendly, often harassing legitimate customers to prove their accounts. I remember Bell calling an elderly couple in their 80's and demanding they go to each receiver and read the onscreen data to verify all the STB's were at that address. The couple not only had physical limitations but had difficulties using the STB. When they were unable to comply, Bell deactivated all the STB's. By the way, they stayed deactivated because I installed Shaw Direct for them a few days later. lol

As mentioned by others I wouldn't expect the coverage to change with a Rogers buyout. The issue is not who owns the company but the limitations of the broadcast license.

 

[modefan63]

hopfully no change in service rogers lets you stream city news on pc and iphone live never had a problem. hoping they will leave things as they are

 

[harshness]

Shaw Direct without question has a far superior picture with their STB's over Bell. It would be a shame if they moved to an inferior technology or over-compressed to make more money.

All the technology available may not help when it comes time to move everything to a single satellite slot.

 

[tvmaster]

hopfully no change in service rogers lets you stream city news on pc and iphone live never had a problem. hoping they will leave things as they are

Rogers has already killed the idea of ‘owning’ your receivers. They’ve told retailers to ‘sell what you have, we’re a rental company, not a sales company’. So if you were lucky enough to buy a 800 series receiver, then you’ll be fine. Otherwise, you’re renting. Rogers has also started randomly killing owner’s series 600 boxes by restricting all channels to them. Nice. Sure, the mpeg4 technology will be finished in Feb 2024, but it seems wildly illegal to kill perfectly good boxes that people owned. There are still a decent number of channels using mpeg4 until that time.
So that’s how Rogers is treating the Shaw customers of old.
No surprise.