Rogers on Demand enhancements: 48 is the new 24
By: calendar iconAugust 5th, 2010 a 3:39pm

Rogers on Demand main menuWhen it comes to ordering a movie through Rogers on Demand, sometimes 24 hours just aren’t enough.

In fact, that happened to me and my wife a few weeks ago. We ordered a movie Saturday night, fell asleep in the middle and didn’t have time to watch it before it expired the next night.

We no longer have to worry about re-arranging our schedule to fit in a flick thanks to some enhancements to Rogers On Demand (Channel 100), including the extension of the viewing window on most movies to 48 hours.

But that’s not all. We’ve also rolled out improvements you may have already started to notice, such as:

  • A movie-poster carousel to browse as if you were at the video store
  • The ability to create playlists to program up to 15 videos in a row
  • The addition of a progress bar with time and marker to see where you’re at during a program
  • We activated the Info button to let you quickly get information on a movie or show while browsing or watching a program.
  • We improved the look and feel to include a faster, more-responsive interface

The changes, which are now live for Rogers Digital TV customers in Ontario, come at no additional charge. Playlists and the progress bar are also available if you live in Atlantic Canada.

What’s on Rogers On Demand?
Next time you go to Channel 100, check out what’s new as you search for the latest rom-com or action flick. New movies are available as soon as they hit the video store, so there’s no need to worry about standing in line or late fees.

Want to learn more?
Check out this page on Rogers.com to get all the details on Rogers on Demand. Or, click around channel 100 on your set-top box to see it in action.

Have you tried Rogers On Demand recently? What do you think of the new features and functionality?

Richard Bloom is a regular contributor to RedBoard.

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Rogers on Demand enhancements: 48 is the new 24, 2.0 out of 5 based on 27 ratings
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  1. Alex says: August 5th, 2010 a 4:04pm

    “We improved the look and feel to include a faster, more-responsive interface”
    I’ll check it out tonight. I sure hope it’s faster. It was the slowest menu ever.

    Is it organized better yet?

    • Rogers_Richard says: August 6th, 2010 a 5:17pm

      Hi Alex,

      We haven’t changed the merchandising on the platform, but we’re always looking for suggestions on how we can improve so please let us know your thoughts!

      Richard.

  2. David says: August 5th, 2010 a 7:42pm

    I suppose this is a better way to compete with the soon to be arriving NetFlix streaming service as compared to reducing the download limits in the Internet access packages. I will check it out but I am not expecting much as I have never really been impressed by a) the UI and b) the selection.

    D

  3. nbguy66 says: August 6th, 2010 a 8:48am

    Great feature, but frustrating that it’s only available in Ontario. How difficult is it to roll our a new feature to ALL customers? Not to mention wireless HSPA+.

    • Rogers_Richard says: August 6th, 2010 a 5:16pm

      Hi.

      I appreciate your frustration. Our customers in Atlantic Canada use a different On Demand system as they have different set-top boxes. We hope to be able to have all customers on the same platform one day soon.

      Richard.

  4. JustinD says: August 6th, 2010 a 12:23pm

    I actually went to food network on demand the other day before the tweet came out for this. it looks like all they did was add a splash screen, its STILL horrendously slow to navigate the menu’s and the load time off the bat is still the same.

    It seems to me that these days roger’s only cares about adding “bling” to their content and not improving the overall customer experience.

    Overall when i tested it the other day everything was EXACTLY the same with the exception of a “Rogers On Demand” splash screen with flashing bright lights.

    Issues still present:
    1. hitting left, right, etc on the remote is still slow in response time for the screen, and still results in overshooting or undershooting the desired action.
    2. Content. there is none of it… honestly, food network on demand had 6 shows on it…
    3. Content Labels. what does “Oranges” as the selection title tell me? give me the show name and episode title (or number)!
    4. Slow loading times. when i have to select each episode title to read the cryptic description of the episode to try to figure out what it is, it takes a good 5 seconds to load plain text…
    5. Much much more… Please actually post some updates aside from a graphical “blinged” out loading page (which goes back and forth to the original loading screen a couple times during loading)

    • Rogers_Richard says: August 6th, 2010 a 4:40pm

      Hi JustinD.

      Thanks for your feedback. My colleagues on the Rogers on Demand team are reading these comments so we’ll take your points into consideration for future updates.

      Cheers,
      Richard.

  5. Ed says: August 8th, 2010 a 9:50pm

    When i try to access on demand it says on demand service is unavailable but I am in ontario

  6. Ron says: August 9th, 2010 a 10:40am

    Tried the “new and improved” ROD and it is still horribly slow. This is the main reason I don’t bother with it. It should not take 30 seconds to load and about 5-10 seconds between each “click”. Will continue to steer clear until it actually loads properly. Was in Florida recently and Comcast’s on demand was 10x faster (and way more selection for that matter). No surprise there.

  7. DavidS says: August 9th, 2010 a 9:06pm

    First of all I would like to say that I find this an awesome platform to interact with Rogers people who are actually involved in what makes Rogers products.

    Now, with regard to the on demand functions: Where are the HD versions of the Mad Men episodes? It’s strange (bad) enough that unlike other Canadian cable/sat-co’s we don’t get AMC in HD to watch the show when it first airs, but at least last year we could watch them on demand and in HD a day or so later… now only SD? Seems like a small step back, unfortunately….

    • RogersRob says: August 11th, 2010 a 2:16pm

      Hey DavidS,

      Appreciate getting your feedback on the blog!

      The ROD team is aware there’s interest in the HD episodes of Mad Men/AMC HD channel, and I’ve also passed your individual feedback along to them.

      Currently the SD episodes of Mad Men are available up to 48 hrs after airing live.

  8. Adam says: August 11th, 2010 a 2:31pm

    Haven’t tried it, at my other place now, where we have Shaw cable (thank god). In September, back to Rogers, I hope the menu system has improved greatly. Compared to some other systems, Rogers menu system is horrendously slow, lacking of features, and just unpleasant to look at.

  9. ainyul says: August 19th, 2010 a 4:31pm

    Hello, are any of the media options available to fido customers (rogers on demand; etc.)..?

    thx

  10. guleed says: August 28th, 2010 a 3:55pm

    love the 48 hour feature for paid movies but free shows is 24 hrs?

    • Rogers_Richard says: August 30th, 2010 a 1:02pm

      Hi guleed,
      Correct. The good news is, if you want to re-watch it once the window has expired, you can re-order it for free.
      Cheers,
      Richard.

  11. Jason says: August 29th, 2010 a 8:37pm

    So far I have seen no improvements… nothing but a loss of ALL HD on demand services for HBO and TMN On Demand. This was the #1 reason for keeping my cable, wirelesss, internet and home phone with Rogers. I am located in New Brunswick and Aliant is getting real aggressive. Not sure I’ll stick with Rogers much longer if this doesn’t change. The HD selections were getting less and less and now are gone. Not to mention the terrible menu for renting HD movies. My options are 1) Just in 2) Last Change 3) HD Movies A-Z 4)Best Movie Scores? are you serious? What about something as simple as new releases…. let alone categories such as comedies and drama lol… Again great idea with very very poor execution.

    • Rogers_Richard says: August 30th, 2010 a 1:48pm

      HI Jason,

      I’m going to reach out to you directly via email to learn some more about your situation.

      Cheers,
      Richard.

      • Justin says: September 1st, 2010 a 7:29pm

        Hey Richard,

        I’m wondering if you have more information on the TMN and Mpix HD content being removed?

        Thank you,

        • Rogers_Richard says: September 2nd, 2010 a 4:07pm

          HI Justin,

          Unfortunately, the HD content on TMN OnDemand, HBO Canada OnDemand and Mpix OnDemand is currently unavailable for customers in Atlantic Canada. We are working to have service restored as soon as possible.

          However, you can still get the content via the channels TMN HD, HBO Canada HD, HBO2 Canada HD and Mpix HD.

          Richard.