- Date:
- 1960 - present
- Headquarters:
- Toronto
- Areas Of Involvement:
- radio
- broadcasting
- sports broadcasting
- mass media
- television
Rogers Communications
News •
From its modest origins as a single FM radio station in Toronto, Canada, in 1960, Rogers Communications has grown to become a powerhouse communications and multimedia company, providing wireless, information technology, cable TV, Internet, print and digital publications, and telephone services to millions of people across Canada. Traded publicly on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: RCI) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RCI.A and RCI.B), Rogers Communications generates billions in revenue annually.
In addition to its millions of wireless subscribers and Internet customers, Rogers, as it is commonly known in Canada, boasts substantial broadcasting, publishing, and sports entertainment assets. Headquartered in Canada’s business and media capital of Toronto, the corporation employs some 25,000 people across the country. This entry provides an overview of Rogers Communications, including its history and its range of services.
History
Rogers’ founder, Ted Rogers, a lawyer turned entrepreneur, grew up surrounded by media and electronics. Rogers’ father, Ted Rogers, Sr., invented the world’s first all-electronic radio in 1924. Motivated perhaps by his father’s pioneering work, the younger Rogers partnered in 1960 with a prominent broadcaster to buy Toronto’s CHFI Radio, the country’s first FM station. In that same year, Rogers, along with others, launched Toronto’s first private television station, CFTO. Rogers expanded with the addition of an AM radio station a few years later.
" height="20" alt="HEW Logo">
In 1967, Rogers Cable was launched with just 300 subscribers in Brampton, Ontario. In 1979, Rogers, now a publicly traded company, bought Canadian Cablesystems. A year later, Rogers expanded further, becoming Canada’s largest cable TV company, when it purchased Premier Cablevision. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Rogers invested heavily in cellular phone service. By 2007, the radio and TV company that began with an $85,000 loan had turned into a major cell service provider in Canada. Now, in the early 21st century, Rogers is a vertically and horizontally integrated communications, media, and sports entertainment company.
Rogers’ Reach: Wireless
Rogers’ reach is wide with the most wireless subscribers (more than 12 million) in Canada in 2026. Wireless revenue represents almost 60 percent of the company’s total revenue. Its wireless services—and its subsidiaries Fido and chat4 Mobile—reach more than 9 in 10 Canadians. In 2018, the wireless carrier partnered with the Swedish hardware manufacturer Ericsson as part of a multiyear effort to expand high-speed 5G wireless service. The move coincides with a global migration to the faster wireless network and the Canadian federal government’s decision to auction more wireless spectrum to help build ultrafast 5G networks across the world’s second largest country by area.
Rogers and Cable
In addition to Rogers’ substantial wireless reach, millions of Canadians rely on the diversified media and communication company for cable TV, telephone, and Internet services. Concentrated in Ontario, New Brunswick, and on the island of Newfoundland, Rogers generated more than $7 billion in revenue in 2025 from its cable services. The company’s number of Internet subscribers has grown to more than 4 million.
In line with industry trends, Rogers continues to expand its broadband Internet with the goal of offering faster data communication speeds. The company is in the process of migrating to technology that will enable upload and download speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second. Faster Internet services also pave the way for Rogers’ new Internet-based TV. As the number of cable TV subscribers declines across Canada, with many opting to become so-called “cord cutters,” Rogers, along with Shaw Communications Inc., launched the video-on-demand service Shomi in 2014 to keep customers who are increasingly opting to watch TV and movies online. After two years, however, Shomi shut down, unable to attract enough subscribers to sustain the streaming service. In 2018, Rogers launched its new Internet-based Ignite TV that allows users to watch traditional cable TV in addition to YouTube and Internet-based streaming services such as Netflix. The service’s app also allows subscribers to watch TV on multiple devices such as smartphones and tablets.
The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.
SUBSCRIBE
Rogers and Media
In addition to its wireless and cable services, Rogers is a major player in Canada’s media landscape, owning dozens of radio and television stations as well as sports and entertainment assets. Rogers owns a number of big Canadian media companies such as City, OMNI Television, FX Canada, The Shopping Channel, and Sportsnet. It once owned some of Canada’s leading magazines, including Maclean’s and Chatelaine, but in recent years began to reduce its print and digital publishing businesses before eventually selling its publishing division to St. Joseph Communications in 2019.
With television stations in major Canadian cities such as Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Montreal, Rogers’ City television stations offer programming aimed at younger audiences. OMNI Television, with five stations across the country, is an over-the-air multilingual free channel offering a wide range of ethnocultural programming. Using four platforms—TV, radio, online, and mobile—Sportsnet delivers sports news and content to local, regional, and national audiences. Ice hockey, with its Canadian origins and passionate fans across the nation, dominates much of Sportsnet’s programming.
Rogers and Sports
In 2013, Rogers won the rights to broadcast NHL hockey in Canada, outbidding the long-time public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Rogers’ $5.2-billion, 12-year deal dramatically changed how Canadians tuned in to watch hockey. The deal also significantly increased Rogers’ prominence in Canada’s broadcast industry. Steeped in tradition, the Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada broadcast is often among Canada’s top TV programs, averaging 7.5 million Canadian viewers each week, according to Sportsnet. As part of a sublicensing deal with Rogers, CBC continued to air the English-language broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada and Stanley Cup playoffs to ensure the NHL games reached the widest possible number of Canadians.
In 2019, Rogers owned 37.5 percent of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Ltd., owners of the NHL Toronto Maple Leafs, the professional soccer team Toronto Football Club, the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, the Toronto Raptors with the National Basketball Association, and the Toronto Marlies, a professional hockey team in the American Hockey League. Rogers’ Sportsnet is the exclusive broadcaster of many of its professional sports teams. Rogers also owns the Toronto Blue Jays, Canada’s sole Major League Baseball (MLB) team. Like its other sports properties, Rogers Sportsnet broadcasts Blue Jays’ games on its four regional channels and its nationally distributed Sportsnet ONE channel.
The original version of this article was published by SAGE Publications in The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.