Rogers is feeling some growing pains in the launch of its suite of lifestyle and factual channels, thanks to distribution concerns and regulatory burden, according to Rogers Sports & Media president Colette Watson (pictured).

Speaking at Prime Time in Ottawa on Thursday (Jan. 30), Watson said Rogers’ surprise deals with Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal in June to acquire the content for brands such as HGTV, Food Network, Bravo and Discovery – previously held by competitors Bell Media and Corus Entertainment – was a way to strengthen the future of its media division.

“Status quo is not an option anymore,” said Watson. “Did we shake things up? Yeah, on purpose, because we need this to be a strong industry in this country … but the system is old.”

Part of the issue is that the suite of channels launched on Jan. 1 – HGTV, Food Network, Magnolia, Discovery ID and Discovery – are not being distributed by BDUs in Canada, outside of Rogers. The issue has meant new seasons and titles from the channels are unavailable to non-Rogers subscribers.

As a result, Watson says Rogers has paused plans to commission original unscripted content, as the level of investment in original programming is based on the percentage of channel revenue, derived by subscriptions.

Watson also pointed to a carriage dispute with Corus over the alignment of its Home and Flavour channels. According to a submission from Rogers to the CRTC, Rogers has been subject to a standstill ruling for more than 16 months to give Corus “unjustified and de facto access right” to keep the channels in the same placement as the prior HGTV Canada and Food Network Canada channels. It also claimed that Rogers has been forced to pay wholesale rates that “do not reflect the fair market value of any services within Corus’ portfolio.”

A spokesperson for Corus previously told Playback Daily that Rogers was “attempting to remove choice from Canadian viewers to benefit their own bottom line.”

At Prime Time, Watson argued that the system is “wonky and broken,” noting that foreign streaming competitors have no regulatory burden when it comes to the carriage or alignment of channels.

“They don’t have to carry 9(1)h services. They don’t have to do priority carriage. They want to raise their price, they can raise their price. They want repackage, they repackage. They want to drop channels, bring on new channels … it’s done in days,” she said. “We’re 18 months in on a proposed channel realignment that is stuck in in purgatory somewhere over across the bridge.”

Watson said the CRTC is “a little bit behind in keeping up with the market dynamics,” arguing that the regulator should “let the market do what it needs to do.”

“I feel like sometimes we’re talking about renovating the kitchen, and the barn’s on fire,” she added, referring to the current consultations on market dynamics at the CRTC, which will be subject to a hearing in spring.

One concern she raised was the area of local news, stating that, as one of the smaller news providers in the country, Rogers does not want to see Netflix or Disney+ be regulated into the local news space.

“Some of us are better equipped to think about local news and protect 9(1)h services, and some of us are better equipped to do big-budget dramas,” she said.

Motion Picture Association – Canada (MPA-Canada), which represents the interests of streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video and Crunchyroll, has challenged a ruling from the CRTC requiring a portion of foreign-owned streamers to direct a portion of their Canadian revenues to support a fund for local news. An appeal of the contributions decision is currently before the Federal Court of Appeal and will be heard in court at a later date.

Image courtesy of Rogers Sports & Media