Tech Blog

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Rogers announced today that it took its On Demand Online service out of beta and is officially launching it to all Canadians. The site will be open to both visitors and existing Rogers customers (Internet, wireless, TV or home phone), though the latter group will get more perks when it comes to available content.

As is, Rogers On Demand Online (or RODO for short) isn’t exactly what Hulu is for Americans. In other words, you shouldn’t expect this to be a one-stop shop for all the TV shows that you love to watch, including a healthy dose of programs from days gone by. Instead, the current state of the site is more of a smattering of programs, many of which I don’t know well at all or never heard of. I don’t watch much TV, as it is, so I digress.

To be fair, Rogers did say as part of its announcement that more content partnerships and extra features are in the works. We should start seeing these rolled out in the coming months, though there are no real details on what that really means.

Rogers is trying to go with a bit of a social networking angle on this by having users comment on episodes and video to strike up conversations. Good idea, but time will tell how successful it is, and if they can integrate it with Facebook, Twitter and other sites.

It’s neat that they’ll be adding live sporting events and concerts into the mix, but again, there are no details on what those might be. Right now, there are partnerships with about a dozen channels, though you’ll get programming from countries as far away as England and the Philippines. There are even listings that have no episodes, while others only have one or two right now. I’m not sure there are any shows in there that have an entire run of episodes.

Have a look and see for yourself. Can you see it growing into something like Hulu?