12. Nadir Mohamed -- As CEO of Rogers, the lingering mystery is what becomes of Sportsnet, a network of sports radio stations and the faltering Toronto Blue Jays: does he prop them up, or take them down?Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
Online movie and TV provider Netflix is a content provider that comes over Rogers' network rather than a competitor and the service doesn't need more regulation, the CEO of Rogers Communications Inc. said Monday.
"From that perspective, it's another content provider that leverages our network and given our environment, we'd say that's consumption of our core product," chief executive Nadir Mohamed said.
But if you happen to own a movie network or have a product that competes with Netflix, then it would be a competitor, Mr. Mohamed said in an interview.
There will be many more content providers on the Internet and they will drive network consumption, he added.
Mr. Mohamed was lukewarm to applying Canadian content rules to such online content providers or having them contribute to Canadian programming.
"My first premise would be that less regulation is better than more," he said from Toronto.
"I am aware of the policy issues people need to think about - what's in the public interest in terms of Canadian content. But to apply it by saying, take what exists in the conventional world and use the same narrative language to apply to the new world, I think would be a mistake."
Mr. Mohamed said Rogers wants to provide its content over multiple platforms - smart phones, computer tablets, TV sets, radio and printed content - a strategy being used by other telecom-media companies such as BCE and Quebecor Inc.
"For us, when we look out three to five years, we are very focused on the game plan that starts and rests on the premise that there's an insatiable demand for people to be informed, connected and entertained."