You know when traditional cable companies are in trouble when they start launching new services like Rogers recently launched Ignite SmartStream service.

I had a friend send me this article from the St. Catharines Standard recently which is basically just a Rogers press release made to look like a news story.

The opening line of the article states:

“Responding to a rapid rise in demand for streaming over traditional cable or satellite television, Canadian telecom company Rogers Communications has introduced a new way to access content that aggregates movies and TV shows from subscription streaming services.”

I mean this would be great news if it was still 2002, but instead it’s 2020 and once again a major Canadian telecommunications company has decided to launch a product that no one asked for or needed.

So why do we think this is one of the laziest most useless services we’ve seen in awhile?

Let’s start off with the fact that in order to even use the service you need to be a Rogers Ignite internet customer already. So it’s what we call a ‘walled garden’ product meaning that you can only pay Rogers the $5.00 a month fee for this new service only if you are already a Rogers internet customer.

So let’s say you are already using Rogers Ignite internet at your home. What do you get for this additional $5 a month?

Rogers will ship you a proprietary streaming box, which is basically just a streaming device that Rogers has white labeled for their own use. Now in this day and age most people who have already cut the cable cord have at least one device in their household that already has streaming capabilities like a Smart TV or another external OTT streaming device like a Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku or Amazon Firestick.

So how is Rogers proprietary box different from any of these other devices?

Well according to Rogers the big selling point is that their SmartStream device has voice search!

Except all those other devices mentioned have had voice search capability for awhile now, so hardly an innovative new concept.

So the other big selling point according to the article comes from Eric Bruno, senior vice-president of 5G, content and connected home products for Rogers:

“the service is designed for people who aren’t interested in traditional TV — “cord-cutters/cord-nevers” — and eliminates the need to use multiple apps.”

Just what I’ve never asked for a way to get rid of the need for all of those pesky hard to use apps.

You might as well be watching a late night infomercial telling you ‘there’s got to be a better way!'‘

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This is called content aggregation and it’s been around for decades. Remember when internet portal websites were a thing? The idea that you would go to your AOL or Yahoo homepage so you didn’t have to go to all of those individual pesky websites all by yourself.

There’s only one problem with this idea, Ignite SmartStream from Rogers still asks you to use individual apps. Just check out this video showcasing how different their box is from any other streaming device.

That’s what Rogers is selling this service as. You don’t get any actual TV or Movie content from them. It just aggregates other streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Sportsnet, YouTube & Hayu. You still have to pay for all of those services.

Here is the biggest problem with this device, it doesn’t even offer content aggregation from all of the streaming services that are already available in Canada that you can get access to with all of the other streaming devices mentioned previously.

Services like CBC Gem, ICI Tou TV, Crave, Disney+, Apple+, CTV, TSN, RDS, TVA Sports, Global, CBS All Access, Spotify, MLB, NBA, DAZN, BritBox, AcornTV, Shudder, Crunchyroll, Treehouse, NFB, Knowledge Network and worst of all services that Rogers runs like City TV, NHL and FX Canada are missing.

Don’t worry though, Rogers says right on the Ignite SmartStream website that more apps are coming soon!

All of the services mentioned above already have streaming apps on the Apple TV and other streaming devices. You know the best part of having access to all those streaming services on another device like the Apple TV? I don’t need to be in Rogers walled garden and be a Rogers internet user to use that device.

An example of all the apps available on the Apple TV

That means I can take my Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku or Amazon Firestick and plug it into any TV on any wifi network anywhere in the world and use all the previously mentioned apps with voice capabilities.
I guess the only problem is I have to go to all the trouble of opening each app individually, so much effort!

Rogers and Bell have spent decades being simple middlemen in the TV world and now that streaming has started to mature and become more and more mainstream allowing consumers to have direct relationships with the people who make the content they are struggling to stay relevant.

This Ignite SmartStream product is clear proof of that.
Rogers already tried and failed to benefit from the streaming trend when they launched Shomi their own competitive service to Netflix and Crave which they shuddered in 2016. We wrote about that here.

Shomi at least required some effort, this service is just a lazy attempt for Rogers to charge customers $5.00 a month for a vastly inferior product that no one needs and no one asked for.

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Rogers launches 'lazy' streaming option called Ignite SmartStream