Last Updated on: 4th October 2024, 03:04 pm
Pretty sure I just figured out how Rogers plans to pay for its shiny new chunk of sports monopolization. You’ll be shocked by the answer, no doubt.
Upcoming change to your TV Box rental fee(s)
We hope you’re enjoying your TV service. With the rising costs to deliver the latest technology, we’ll begin charging an additional $7/month (plus taxes) for each TV box rental on your account, starting on your first bill on or after September 24, 2024. Any existing discount will remain in effect until its end date.
Please note, if you have box(es) included as part of your condo maintenance or property rental fee(s), they remain included. Any additional box(es) will increase by $7/month (plus taxes).
The rest of your Rogers TV service remains the same. If you have any questions or no longer wish to rent any of your box(es), please reach out to us as outlined in the Contact Us section of this bill.
That’s right. More of those price increases that the magic of corporate consolidation is somehow supposed to be preventing.
Even by Rogers standards, this one seems especially brazen. Or maybe I’m just very, very annoyed by the second major price increase of the year. Yeah, it’s definitely that, but it’s the other thing too, to some degree.
Seven dollars plus tax per month…per box! You did catch the for each box part before your eyes glazed over, didn’t you? That’s very important to understanding just how much of a blatant cash grab this is.
Fortunately (as much as any of this can be described as fortunate) for us, we only have one television. How many people do you know with more than one? If you’re like me, likely quite a few. Even with one that rate increase is not insignificant especially when piled on top of all the others, so just imagine the pressure it’s going to put on those with two or more and how much money Rogers will be raking in while giving the consumer little to no new value for it. In fact, the plan is to continue stripping that value away come the new year.
Content from specialty channels bound for Rogers including Cooking, OWN, Discovery Science, Motor Trend and Animal Planet will be streamed and on demand when the brands switch to the media giant next year.
Rogers Communications Inc. says these newly acquired lifestyle brands will disappear as a linear option Jan. 1, 2025 but their programming will be available through the streaming service Citytv Plus and on demand through cable packages.
Translation: “If you pay for TV channels expecting that you will be able to watch TV on TV channels, lol, you’re funny. That’ll be another $7.”
Some days I wonder if Rogers et al actually *want* us to cut the cord. Things like this and selling their sports rights to streamers at the expense of the sports network they own and that a lot of us are still paying them for are a fine way to reach that outcome, if so.
Even Carin and I, the last generation who truly grew up on TV and who many nights can be found sitting down to dinner while watching Jeopardy and what’s left of the local news, have started having conversations about whether or not TV is still worth it. No being the answer would have been unthinkable not long ago, but moves like these and others over time have begun making it a lot harder not to say that.