TORONTO (Reuters) - Rogers Communications Inc (TO:RCIb) remains committed to its dividend growth strategy and the failure of its Shomi video streaming joint venture has not diminished its enthusiasm to invest in new technologies, its deputy chairman said on Tuesday.
The Toronto-based company said on Monday it expects to shoulder between C$100 million ($75.68 million) and C$140 million in losses from the wind-down of the service, which was a response to the threat Netflix Inc (O:NFLX) posed to Rogers' cable television business.
"We've aspired to move beyond just the television, and Shomi was one foray into that," said Edward Rogers, whose family controls the company built by his late father.
"While that didn't work to what was planned, it hasn't diminished our enthusiasm and hunger to invest," he added, referencing a plan to launch an Internet-enabled television product by the end of this year.
The company's biggest rival, BCE Inc (TO:BCE), already has 1.27 million customers for its own Internet-based TV product.
Rogers made the comments after unveiling his family's plan to invest C$1.5 billion over 10 to 15 years to build a 10-tower condominium development in Mississauga, just west of Toronto.
He said that plan would have no impact on the family's ownership of the public company, which he said he still sees as a dividend-growth stock.
"We are committing to our company, committed to the people that own our shares and thanking them and giving back to them in the form of dividends as the company grows," he said.