ROGERS OFFERING VIDEO GAMES BY CABLE
By Adnews Staff
The Rogers Cablesystems division of Toronto-based Rogers Communications Inc. is launching a Sega Channel in Newmarket, Ont. today and in Vancouver on Dec. 7. Direct mail and print advertising is being used to support the Newmarket launch of the service which allows people to play Sega video games via interactive television, using a Genesis game machine with a special adapter. TV, transit, print, posters and direct mail are being used to promote the channel in Vancouver. The direct mail is being done by Ogilvy & Mather Direct of Toronto. Enterprise Advertising of Toronto is handling the rest. The service will be rolled out to other cities across Canada next year. The system is being launched in Newmarket because the community is rigged with special two-way cable which was tested earlier this year. In Vancouver Rogers is hoping the new service will help erase bad feelings that were caused by the way new cable channels were launched at the beginning of this year. Rogers and Calgary-based Shaw Communications have together obtained exclusive rights to distribute the Sega Channel in Canada by any means, including cable, direct-to-home and microwave transmission. They acquired the rights from STT Video Partners of New York and Tele-Communications Inc. of Denver. STT is owned by Sega of America and Time Warner, both of New York. The Sega Channel will feature about 50 titles per month from Sega's catalogue of 700 games, plus preview versions of new games before they arrive on store shelves. Shaw has not yet said when it will put Sega channels on its cable systems. Rogers and Shaw are licensing the channel to other cable operators. At least 15 cable systems across Canada have made applications to the CRTC for ammendments of their broadcast licences that would allow them to carry the Sega Channel.