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posted by n1 on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the giving-customers-some-of-what-they-want...eventually dept.

Shaw and Rogers, two of Canada's gigantic media oligopolies have announced that they're launching a media streaming service called Shomi.

Shomi is a Netflix clone, presumably with less content and more Canadian stuff. Unlike Netflix it will only be available to their existing customers, and will be priced at $8.99, the same as Netflix.

The assumed reason for this product, reportedly two years in the making, is that Canadians have been abandoning overpriced cable service for cheaper Netflix.

From TFA:

Shomi will be heavy on TV at launch when it is set to feature 11,000 hours of television from 340 series and 14,000 episodes. It will also include 1,200 movies and about 30 per cent of the content will be Canadian. While Rogers has invested heavily in sports rights, live or replayed sporting events are not part of the plans for Shomi, although it will feature sports movies and documentaries.

[...] Shomi will be available on five platforms at launch – tablet, mobile (iOS and Android), online, Xbox 360 and and set-top boxes. Those who access it through their cable boxes will encounter more basic graphics, but they won’t have to worry about it counting against their Internet data cap for the month.

The purple-branded interface is similar to what users of Netflix are used to, with new content highlighted near the top and recommendations tailored based on your stated preferences and past viewing habits. Rogers and Shaw say they are banking on bringing a human touch to the service with expert-curated libraries and more personal feel.

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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:45PM

    by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:45PM (#86455)

    It's a requirement in Canada that networks carry a specific precentege of Canadian content. That's why Canadian Netflix sucks and there's huge demand for American VPNs. Although Canadian Netflix is still better than regular cable. I'm saving $80 a month with Netflix, Hula and a VPN subscription instead of cable.

    --
    "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
    • (Score: 3, Informative) by compro01 on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:23PM

      by compro01 (2515) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:23PM (#86489)

      I don't know where you heard that, but it's completely incorrect. Cancon regulations don't apply to streaming services. They're only applicable to radio and broadcast television. Radio must play 25-40% (depending on the exact license terms) MAPL music and broadcast television, averaged over the year, must have 55% Canadian content, and at least 50% of prime time content must be Canadian.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 28 2014, @06:40PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 28 2014, @06:40PM (#86857)

        The producers of SCTV (1976 - 1981) were required by law to have Canadian-themed content on their sketch comedy show.

        So Bob and Doug Mackenzie were created by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. There was no script so it was all improv and done on a meta level out of 'spite' for the Canadian broadcasting rules that forced them to create these characters in the first place.

        The rest is history...

        Their masterpiece is THE ADVENTURES OF BOB & DOUG MCKENZIE: STRANGE BREW (1983).

  • (Score: 2) by Snow on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:46PM

    by Snow (1601) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @08:46PM (#86456) Journal

    I gotta say, one of my favourite times of the month is when my cable bill arrives. I have a bundle deal with cable TV and internet. I ordered the TV a couple years ago and wanted every HD channel. 34.95 or something for HD PLUS plus an extra $25 or something for like HD PLUS PLUS or some crap like that. Then I added HBO for another 15+/mo (thanks GoT...).

    Anyways, when my bill arrives, it's like $170/month. It's outrageous! Now, as they add more HD channels, I have little pockets of HD channels that I don't get. You'd think that ~120 a month (the CTV portion) would give me all the HD channels, but no, not at all.

    I tell ya, the next thing I want to do is pay shaw another 8 bucks! It makes me so mad to pay so much for so much shit TV. 'My 600lb life' or 'sex sent me to the ER' should be paying me. I really should cancel..

    • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:02PM

      by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:02PM (#86461)

      Yeah, Same here with on the east coast with our cable company. I was paying $167/month for *all* the HD digital channels. Then we started losing channels and new one's with the exact same content started popping up. "Oh, that'll only cost you another $5/month to upgrade for the extra channels... I cut the cable a couple months ago so now I'm paying $88/month for internet and phone. $10/month for a VPN to the states, $9/month for Netflix, using Hulu for free and watch some shows from the network sites. Then I download the content I can't get on those services, which isn't really very much any more, it's much less than I was downloading with cable because the shows we wanted to watch were on too late for us to stay up. Talk about pissed off, for only another $15/month I could rent a PVR so we could record the shows that were on at times we couldn't see them... which was a steal I guess since I was already paying $167/month to not be able to watch those shows or have to download them anyway.

      --
      "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
      • (Score: 2) by The Archon V2.0 on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:17PM

        by The Archon V2.0 (3887) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:17PM (#86465)

        What VPN service, if you don't mind me asking?

        • (Score: 2) by Vanderhoth on Wednesday August 27 2014, @11:51PM

          by Vanderhoth (61) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @11:51PM (#86524)

          F'm still not settled, but the one I'm currently using is VyprVPN

          --
          "Now we know", "And knowing is half the battle". -G.I. Joooooe
    • (Score: 2) by tibman on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:14PM

      by tibman (134) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:14PM (#86464)

      That does sound frustrating. For $170 a month you could buy a Roku every month and still come out ahead.

      --
      SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:31PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:31PM (#86493)

      Basically the same situation we have down in the States: Monopolies + regulatory capture = huge overcharges for bad service.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
    • (Score: 1) by aclarke on Thursday August 28 2014, @01:45PM

      by aclarke (2049) on Thursday August 28 2014, @01:45PM (#86722) Homepage

      I'm not saying this to be an ass, or that guy [theonion.com] who doesn't have TV, but why do you pay for this at all?

      Dump TV. It will hurt for a couple months, but you'll quickly get used to it. For $170 per month, you can subscribe to Netflix and a proxy server ($15/month), and still have $155 per month to spend on upgrading your internet connection to stupid fast (assuming you can get it where you are), buy/rent whatever you want on iTunes, and still have a huge amount of money left over each month.

      If I want to watch something specific, I first look on Netflix. If it's not there, I look on iTunes. If it's not there, well then, that's something you'll have to figure out for yourself. I don't feel too sorry for people when they don't want to give me options to pay them for the content they're producing.

    • (Score: 1) by Wootery on Monday September 01 2014, @02:57PM

      by Wootery (2341) on Monday September 01 2014, @02:57PM (#88101)

      I really should cancel..

      I second aclarke. Why don't you?

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:53PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 27 2014, @09:53PM (#86472)

    I do miss a few Discovery Channel shows (among a few others), even if the entire network is a shadow of its former self. If this brings a few more of the cable-oriented programs available for quality, on-demand streaming on par with Netflix, I might be ready to throw Shaw a few extra bucks.

  • (Score: 2) by Dunbal on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:06PM

    by Dunbal (3515) on Wednesday August 27 2014, @10:06PM (#86476)

    Like most other Canada only alternatives, it will feature less than half of the movies you'd want to watch on Netflix and the other half full of "made in Canada" garbage that no one wants to watch anywhere, for twice the price as Netflix.

    • (Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Thursday August 28 2014, @01:47AM

      by Nerdfest (80) on Thursday August 28 2014, @01:47AM (#86540)

      Yes, but Rogers won't degrade the bandwidth of its own service ... Netflix will not likely be so lucky. I posted an article a couple of months ago showing that it is being degraded in the US by some carriers.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 28 2014, @05:18AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 28 2014, @05:18AM (#86613)
  • (Score: 1) by aclarke on Thursday August 28 2014, @01:51PM

    by aclarke (2049) on Thursday August 28 2014, @01:51PM (#86725) Homepage

    The actual article states this:

    As of now, only Rogers or Shaw television or Internet subscribers will be able to sign up, but the companies say they’re already in discussions with other television distributors and hope to make it more widely available at launch. Executives say they expect their “beta” testing period to last six to 12 months and will evaluate different pricing and packaging options as they go. It could eventually be available to anyone, regardless of whether they are customers of any specific television or Internet provider.

    One can read this in a couple ways. First, the cynical part of me who has to deal with Rogers thinks it's only meant to placate me and make me think Rogers is the good guy. It could also be that they genuinely are going to offer it more widely, although I'd wager it will be a lot more if you're not a Rogers/Shaw customer.

    I'm in Rogers territory. However, I couldn't get Rogers cable or internet access where I live even if I wanted it, which I don't. So, I'm not going to be able to get Shomi right now, even if I wanted to. I guess I'll just stick with Netflix + proxy.