The Rogers are communications pioneers in Canada and one of the country’s richest families. Entrepreneur Ted Rogers founded the family business in 1960 and turned it into the nation’s biggest communications company.
Son of an inventor and radio business owner, Ted partnered with prominent personalities and investors to secure an interest in Toronto’s first privately owned television station in 1959. Ted Rogers would expand into cable TV in 1967 and became Canada’s largest cable company in 1980. At the time of his death in 2008, Ted Rogers was the fourth-richest Canadian, with a net worth of over $7 billion, while Rogers Communications was Canada’s largest wireless provider, owned 52 radio stations, numerous TV stations and more than 70 magazines and trade journals.
Ted Rogers’ son, Edward, is Chairman of Rogers Communications and controls the family’s holdings. Edward’s sister, Melinda Rogers, serves as the Deputy Chairperson for Rogers Communications, in addition to advisory roles in many of the family’s holdings. The Rogers family’s net worth is estimated at over $11 billion. Rogers Communications owns 56 radio stations, 53 television stations and 6,058 cell towers with over 10 million wireless subscribers.
