Rogers exits video store business

Rogers has officially bailed on the video store business.

In December, the company announced it was closing 40 per cent of its video shops as it continued to move away from selling and renting physical copies of DVDs, Blu-rays and video games.

The company said at the time that rentals represented a "declining marketplace" but still kept 93 stores stocked with movies and games.

Those remaining stores stopped renting late last week and are now in liquidation mode.

Rogers intends to keep those locations open to serve its other businesses, such as TV and wireless services.

As far back as 2005, Rogers had been signalling that its video business was in decline.

In February, the company reported its video operations lost $23 million in 2011 on revenues of $82 million, which were down 43 per cent from the previous year.

Last year, Blockbuster Canada also decided to close up shop across the country, shutting more than 400 stores.