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Comment by unfocused | Hacker News Reader

You are incorrect. I’m going to assume you are not Canadian? Every Canadian knows that Rogers is an ISP, and so is Bell. Heck Rogers and Bell even have stakes in professional sports!

They are the 2 major telcos of Canada that all Canadians love to complain about.

I really don’t understand your last paragraph.

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> Heck Rogers and Bell even have stakes in professional sports!

Rogers and Bell own two of the most popular (if not the two most popular) teams in Canada -- Rogers owns the Leafs, Bell owns the Canadiens.

Might be a quibble but Rogers doesn't own the leafs. They own the jays. MLSE owns the leafs. Rogers has a partial ownership of the MLSE. Not sure stake but its not large

True, Rogers indirectly owns part of the Leafs. But, when it's time for the team to make a decision on media, that'll generally be enough to swap that decision.

Was curious about ownership stake and it's much larger than I remember. So I stand corrected on that aspect. Looks like BCE and RCI basically co-own the leafs at 37.5% respectively [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_Leaf_Sports_%26_Entertai...

You're right about the first part. I actually am Canadian, though haven't lived in Canada for over a decade. Absolute brain fart on my part. If you asked me outside the context of this article what Rogers does, I would've listed cable, Internet, telephone provider before any of its media/publishing stuff, but got tunnel vision in the context of this article.

I forgot about the degree to which Rogers is vertically integrated (ISP, cable provider, landline and cell provider, TV stations, radio, partial ownership in all major sports teams, etc.) and the degree to which this is a duopoly with Bell in Canada. But it's no wonder they can get the courts to issues these orders against themselves (and their smaller competitors) to legitimize actions that protect their broader interests.

Weirder still is that Rogers has apparently sub-licensed the English-language broadcast of NHL in Canada to the state-owned broadcaster, CBC: https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/deal-gives-rogers-rights...

One hand washes the other.

It's all good. You should come back and visit :) You will definitely not find a shortage of people that do not like how Rogers operates. You then probably missed out on the whole Rogers fiasco where Edward Rogers was infighting with his own family in trying to regain control. It just turned everybody off.

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