Canada's Rogers expects losses in shutdown of streaming service

[September 27, 2016]  TORONTO (Reuters) - Rogers Communications Inc will incur third-quarter losses of between C$100 million ($75.60 million) to C$140 million as its joint-venture Shomi video streaming service is shut down, the Canadian company said on Monday.

Guy Laurence, President and Chief Executive Officer at Rogers Communications Inc., speaks following their annual general meeting for shareholders in Toronto, April 21, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Blinch
 

Rogers said in a statement that Shomi, a venture whose plans it announced in August 2014 with fellow Canadian company Shaw Communications Inc, will wind down as of Nov. 30.

Shaw, which sold its media assets to sister company Corus Entertainment Inc for C$2.65 billion earlier this year, declined to comment.

Canadian telecommunications companies have been racing to counter the threat posed to their cable services from the streaming site Netflix Inc, which offers a wide selection of programs at a lower cost.

BCE Inc's Bell Media Inc [CTVGM.UL], a rival of Rogers and Shaw, has also launched its own video streaming service, CraveTV.

(Reporting by Ethan Lou in Toronto; Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Phil Berlowitz)

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