Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) will soon see competition in Canada from Shomi, a new subscription-based service that will offer show on demand along with apps for tablets, web, Xbox 360 and set top boxes. Rogers and Shaw, the two biggest providers of the nation have come together to launch this service for their subscribers exclusively, says a report from Techcrunch.
More options for subscribers
Under this partnership, the cable industry magnates will offer an exhaustive 11,000 hours of programming as per the released statement from the companies. The service will offer access to the past seasons of some big shows like Modern Family, Shameless, 24: Live Another Day, American Horror Story and Sons of Anarchy. Above all, Shomi will offer first windows premier of titles which means that they have the rights to some exclusive content before others.
Shomi is offering great deal to the potential subscribers like offering trailers for the content, as well as, factoids for movie titles. Also, the service would offer six profiles per account and simultaneous viewing on two devices as well as set-top boxes. Shomi would most probably be available on other cable set-tops in the country.
Will it affect Netflix?
Netflix dominance would not be hurt by the latest announcement anytime soon, but for the Canadian subscribers this new service will offer much better content library. Shomi is more focussed on giving access to users over the TV-shows along with 14,000 episodes, 340 series and over 1,200 movies. In Canada, the broadcasters have to comply by the rule of 30% Canadian content.
The service will be available to the subscribers in beta version from November for $8.99 per month fee, which is same what subscriber pays for watching Netflix. There have been continuous efforts from the cable companies to challenge the growing popularity of Netflix, and this approach appears to be better than the others in the past.
Netflix shares dropped marginally Tuesday following the news of the Canadian cable majors joining hands to launch the service in Canada. Also, Netflix missed out on some of the most important categories in Emmy awards walking away with only few awards out of massive 31 nominations in various categories.
