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The story
Founded by Edward S. Rogers Sr. in 1960, in Toronto.1
In 1925, Edward Rogers Sr. invented the world's first alternating current (AC) heater filament cathode for a radio tube, which then enabled radios to be powered by ordinary transformer-coupled household electric currents. This was a breakthrough in the technology and became a key factor in popularizing radio reception. He also established the CFRB radio station in Toronto (later acquired by outside interests). In 1931, he was awarded an experimental television licence in Canada. On May 6, 1939, he was working on radar when he died suddenly due to complications of a hemorrhage, at the age of 38. He left a widow, Velma, and a five-year-old son, Edward (known as Ted). While his business interests were subsequently sold, his son later became determined to carry on his father's legacy.
In 1960, Ted Rogers and broadcaster Joel Aldred raised money to found Aldred-Rogers Broadcasting in order to purchase CHFI, an FM radio station in Toronto. Aldred-Rogers Broadcasting also became a part-owner of Baton Aldred Rogers Broadcasting (BARB), which established CFTO-TV, Toronto's first private television station. In 1962, Rogers established CHFI (AM), an AM radio station that later became CFTR. In 1967, Rogers established Rogers Cable TV in partnership with BARB. In 1971, new CRTC regulations forced BARB to sell its 50% stake in Rogers Cable TV.
In 1979, Rogers acquired Canadian Cablesystems, and became listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as a result. In 1980, Rogers acquired Premier Cablevision and became the largest cable company in Canada. In 1986, Rogers Cable was renamed Rogers Communications; it established operational control over Cantel, a wireless telephone company in which Rogers had a stake.
Acquisition of Maclean-Hunter
In 1989, Maclean-Hunter acquired Selkirk Communications, whose subsidiaries included All-Canada Radio & Television, a national broadcast advertising representation company. Maclean-Hunter subsequently sold All-Canada to Rogers Broadcasting. All-Canada's television representation division was sold in 1991, and on December 31, 1992, its radio operations were merged with United Broadcast Sales to form Canadian Broadcast Sales, jointly owned by Rogers Broadcasting and Westcom Radio.
In 1994, Rogers acquired Maclean-Hunter, substantially expanding its cable television, radio and publishing operations. At the time, Maclean-Hunter owned or controlled 35 cable systems, 13 AM and eight FM radio stations, two television stations, a specialty television service and a 12.5 per cent interest in the CTV Television Network. The CRTC approved Rogers's acquisition of effective control of Maclean-Hunter on December 19, 1994, subject to Rogers divesting CFCN-TV in Calgary and Maclean-Hunter's indirect interest in CTV.
21st century
In 2000, Rogers acquired Cable Atlantic from Newfoundland businessman Danny Williams.
In July 2001, Rogers Media acquired CTV Sportsnet, which was renamed as Rogers Sportsnet that November. The FAN 590 sports radio station joined Rogers Media in August 2001, along with 14 Northern Ontario radio stations.
In fall 2004, several strategic transactions were executed that significantly increased Rogers exposure to the potential of the Canadian wireless market. Rogers acquired the 34% of Rogers Wireless owned by AT&T Wireless Services Inc. for $1.77 billion.
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On December 2, 2008, Ted Rogers died of heart failure.
In 2012, Rogers Cable filed a complaint in an Ontario court against penalties levied under a 'Truth in Advertising' law, claiming that the amount of the penalties, and the requirements imposed by the law, were in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The company also had to recognize the rising market trend of customers canceling or foregoing cable television service subscriptions in favour of cheaper priced alternate content delivery means, such as streaming media services like Netflix, a demographic called "cord cutters" and "cord nevers". In response, Rogers acquired content with a speculated cost of $100 million to begin their own competing online streaming service, Shomi, much like the American Hulu Plus, which launched November 4, 2014. Shomi subsequently shut down after only 2 years of operation, on November 30, 2016.
In the summer of 2014, Rogers reported a 24% drop in profit compared to the previous year's second quarter.
In August 2018, Rogers launched Ignite TV, a new cable television platform. The platform is licensed from Comcast's "X1" platform.
In November 2023, Rogers acquired Canadian ISP and VOIP provider Comwave.
In July 2025, Rogers became the first Canadian wireless provider to launch satellite-to-mobile text messaging service, extending coverage to 5.4 million square kilometers through partnerships with SpaceX and Lynk Global. The service allows text messaging and text-to-911 capabilities in areas without traditional cellular coverage.
Acquisition of Shaw, family dispute
On March 15, 2021, Rogers announced its intent to acquire Shaw Communications for $26 billion, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval. This proposed acquisition was criticized by public lobby groups like Open Media, as a move that would reduce national competition in Canadian wireless communication by removing one of the four major competitors from the market.
On September 29, chief financial officer Tony Staffieri left the company. On October 8, The Globe and Mail reported that this came about following Edward Rogers' attempt to have Staffieri replace Joe Natale, a former Telus executive and the company's third CEO since Ted Rogers' death in 2008. This attempt was opposed by Edward's mother and sisters. Edward Rogers was then removed as chairman of the board, while remaining a board member, on October 21. However, a proposal to remove Edward as chair of the Rogers Control Trust, which holds the majority voting interest in Rogers Communications on behalf of the family, did not receive sufficient support from other members of the trust's advisory committee.
The following day, Edward Rogers, in his capacity as chair of the Control Trust, announced he was unilaterally enacting a written shareholder resolution replacing five of the board's independent directors, and two days later convened a meeting at which the "reconstituted" board re-appointed him as chair of the board of Rogers Communications. The legality of the resolution has been disputed by the board members that were purportedly replaced, and by other members of the Rogers family.
The CRTC approved the Shaw Communications acquisition on March 24, 2022.
In May 2022, the Canadian Competition Bureau requested an order from the Competition Tribunal blocking Rogers's takeover of Shaw Communications, arguing that the deal would substantially lessen competition by eliminating Rogers' closest competitor in the wireless sector. It also requested an injunction to stop the cable companies from closing the deal until the application can be heard.
After two years since it was first announced, Rogers' acquisition of Shaw Communications received the last regulatory approval from the Industry Minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne. To appease concerns over a lack of competition arising, Shaw will be required to sell off its Freedom Mobile wireless business to Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron for $2.85 billion. In addition, Rogers and Videotron agreed to a number of conditions requiring the addition of 3,000 jobs in Western Canada, Videotron must also offer plans 20% lower than the competition and commit to spending $150 million in the next two years to upgrade the Freedom Mobile network. Rogers and Videotron would be liable to pay upwards of $1 billion and $200 million in penalties, respectively, if the commitments were not fulfilled.
In April 2024, Rogers announced a 10-year agreement with Comcast; expanding upon its Ignite TV partnership, the agreement gives Rogers access to Comcast-developed broadband, smart home, and home security hardware.
2021 and 2022 outages
On April 19, 2021, wireless calling, SMS messaging and data services were down throughout much of Canada for almost a full day because of a glitched software update. Rogers reimbursed consumers for the inconvenience.
On July 8, 2022, millions of customers reported issues with Rogers mobile and Internet services, including some Canada government services, such as Service Canada, Canada Revenue Agency and passport offices, as well as Canadian interbank, money transfer network Interac, ATMs and 9-1-1 services. Rogers apologized for the mass outage and said it was trying to restore services. Rogers President and CEO Tony Staffieri issued an apology via Twitter about 17 hours after the start of the incident, acknowledging the issue to the public after a day of system outage. Staffieri acknowledged that the outage stems from a failed maintenance update. Rogers has offered credit as compensation for the outage.
A report by Cloudflare suggested that the outage was due to internal, rather than external, causes. It identified spikes in BGP updates, as well as withdrawals of IP prefixes, noting that Rogers was not advertising its presence, causing other networks to not find the Rogers network. Cause of the outage or expected downtime was initially not revealed. The outage was later said to be caused by a maintenance upgrade that caused routers to malfunction, similar to the outage which occurred a year prior.
On July 11, 2022, Canada federal government opened an investigation about the most recent outage and demanded telecoms companies to make communication protocols to keep customers better informed about possible disruptions. On the same day, Industry minister François-Philippe Champagne met the CEOs of Rogers, BCE Inc, Telus Corp, Shaw Communications Inc., Quebecor Inc.'s Videotron Ltd., SaskTel and Bragg Communications Inc.'s Eastlink. During that meeting, the Industry minister asked companies to implement an agreement in 60 days in which the companies will be able to help each other during an outage in one of their networks.
As a result of the mentioned investigation, as well as scrutiny and criticism over the glitch and the company itself, some traders said the chances of a merger deal between Rogers and Shaw Communications dropped to nearly 62% on July 11, 2022 from 88% in the week earlier.
Rogers CEO, Tony Staffieri, blamed the outage on the maintenance update, and offered a five day service credit to the customers as a sign of apology.
From Wikipedia’s article on Rogers Communications, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8